Something Fishy About Organic Standards

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Nov 17, 2008 at 00:11:30 AM PST

With wild-caught fish the reason is quite simple: if the fish was wild, who the hell knows what it ate? I'd assume it probably ate food that was more natural than anything a fish might eat in captivity, but then there's the question of what kind of pollutants we lovely humans may have added to that wild fish's food. Hmm.

For farmed fish, here's the issue:

But under the proposed standard, farm-raised fish would be considered organic, even if what they eat includes fish meal, which is feed spiked with ground up wild fish.

So a wild fish is not organic, but farmed fish that eats wild fish is? How about not. I'll add to that my own personal concern with this that one of the major problems with some kinds of farmed fish is that it keeps the fish at the top of the food chain throughout their lives, whereas wild fish start lower down on the food chain and only achieve "top of the food chain" status in adulthood. This is significant because the higher you are on the food chain, the more pollutants you accumulate.

One more problem is:

The USDA requires that feed for cows, chickens and the like be 100 percent organic. But under the fish standard, non-organic feed initially would constitute up to 25 percent of the diet of an organically raised fish.

Perhaps NOSB should skip certifying fish and instead allow the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) continue to provide the gold standard of seafood certification.

Groups opposing the proposed fish rules are Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, Living Oceans Society, and the Center for Food Safety. I've included a statement from them below.

Friday Night Happy Story: Thanksgiving!

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 20:31:35 PM PST

So that everyone can participate, Eat Well Guide and Consumers Union are giving out a number of tools to help. Starting with, of course, Eat Well Guide itself. It's a website I rely on as a Google (and Google Maps) of food. Put in your zip code, and it returns where you can buy local, organic food. Or, use their travel tool: enter where you are and where you're going, and they will tell you where to eat along the way.

Then, anyone who participates is encouraged to share their recipes and stories. I've already entered in my recipe for baked delicata squash, which I first made when I received a delicata squash from my CSA a few years ago.

Celebrity chefs have kicked off the recipe-sharing by sharing a few of their own. Alice Waters shared a chard gratin recipe. Scroll down on the page to see recipes from Dan Barber (brussel sprouts) and Mario Batali (butternut squash). Below, I've included a pumpkin soup recipe from my friend Destin, director of Eat Well Guide.

ACTION: Demand better organic standards for farmed fish!

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Oct 29, 2008 at 18:21:33 PM PDT

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.

Reflections on the Consumers Union Activist Summit

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 22:20:02 PM PDT

If you're working on a cause that benefits consumers, they will hold your hand as much as you need. Several of the people I met at the Summit have testified before Congress (often with the help of Consumers Union). One girl I met lost her husband to a drug side effect. He was given a free sample of a drug and five weeks later he was dead. She's been an absolute pit bull working for drug safety ever since, and she HAS made a difference. There are laws on the books in this country because of the people I met at the Summit. And they are just regular people like you or me.

The only thing that didn't sit well with me was the use again and again of the word "consumer." Now, I realize they are Consumers Union and we are there for consumers' rights. But I care about human rights. I need Humans Union. I wish the Democratic Party or the American government were Humans Union but they are not. And Consumers Union has all of the purity that I could ever hope for... they are 100% pro-consumers' rights and they never sway from that. But what about the things that I don't buy?

I don't buy meat, for example. I'm not a meat consumer. But whether I buy it or not doesn't change the fact that factory farms pollute the environment I live in. My life is worse off because of the [mainstream] meat industry and I haven't been their customer in years. My issues are broader than just "consumers' issues."

Today I was very glad that my concern was addressed by the keynote speaker (whose name I don't have handy because I was bad and showed up late). She was an amazing, dynamic speaker who drove home the fact that we are fighting for human rights, not just consumers' rights. Amen to that! So apparently Consumers Union isn't blind to that concept... I was glad it was recognized in such an official capacity during the Summit. And I recognize that their scope is focused on consumer issues and it is a large enough scope to keep them plenty busy for years to come.

If you have been hurt by a product, any product, please, please get involved with Consumers Union. Or get involved even before you have a bad experience that forces you to do so. They are a fantastic organization and they will support you all the way.

Pure Cane Sugar, Now Part of a Balanced Breakfast

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 22:05:40 PM PDT

Cheerios, Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios (all General Mills), and Life (Quaker Oats) earned points for relatively lower sugar and higher dietary fiber, the two categories we weighed as most important. Cheerios topped the list with only 1 gram of sugar and a healthful 3 grams of fiber per serving.

That's the good news. Here's the bad news:

There is at least as much sugar in a serving of Kellogg's Honey Smacks and 10 other rated cereals as there is in a glazed doughnut from Dunkin' Donuts. Two cereals, Kellogg's Honey Smacks and Post Golden Crisp, are more than 50 percent sugar (by weight) and nine are at least 40 percent sugar. And that's not the only issue. Although Kellogg's Rice Krispies has only 4 grams of sugar per serving, it got only a Fair rating, largely because it is higher in sodium and has zero dietary fiber.

The worse news? Who eats just one serving of cereal? If you fill up a large bowl with one of these sugary cereals, you could end up eating an entire CUP of sugar.