Consumers Union and the Center for Food Safety are calling for improved organic standards for farmed fish. Consumers Union's petition explains the issue very well:
The board recommends that fish can be labeled 'organic' even if they've been fed wild fish, which come from polluted environments and are high in mercury and PCBs. Potentially toxic organic fish? That defeats the whole purpose.
And the board recommends fish raised in open ocean net pens be eligible for the organic label. This type of fish farming is highly polluting, as large amounts of waste are released into the environment.
Please sign the petition and then take action on the Center for Food Safety's site too. The deadline for commenting is MONDAY, November 3.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Check out this article on farmed salmon and sea lice. Also, I strongly recommend checking out Marion Nestle's book What to Eat. She goes into why farmed fish can be higher in PCBs and other toxins than wild fish. It's because essentially the farmed fish live their entire lives at the top of the food chain, where they take in much more contaminants than wild fish who do NOT start their lives at the top of the food chain. |
