Norway, British Columbia: The Environmental Tragedy of Salmon Farming

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 17:47:53 PM PST

Fortunately, the Canadians are not taking this lying down. The Canadian-based radio show Deconstructing Dinner ran a fantastic series about salmon farming called "Norway, British Columbia." I just listened to the entire series and I highly recommend it - particularly Episodes 2 and 3. As noted by the radio show, a judge recently ruled that the B.C. government does not have jurisdiction over salmon farms. That belongs to the federal government of Canada. It remains to be seen how this will actually change salmon farming in Canada (or if will have any impact at all).

Massive Farmed Salmon Jailbreak In British Columbia

by: JayinPortland

Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 17:35:27 PM PDT

As if that wasn't enough of a problem, it seems that the company may have taken their emergency response procedures directly from FEMA's playbook, circa 2005 -

But the recapture vessel was not able to start fishing until Thursday and by that time, gillnetters in areas such as Sointula, about 40 kilometres from the Broughton Archipelago, were reporting catches of Atlantic salmon.

"The response time really troubles me," said Chief Bob Chamberlin of the nearby Kwicksutaineuk-Ah-Kwaw-Ah-Mish band.

"One of the only reasons we found out was because a commercial fishery was going on and they were catching Atlantics."

Marine Harvest, the company who runs this particular salmon farm, has also been responsible for other major previous escapes.  Escaped farm fish have been found in 80 rivers in the province, and over 100,000 farmed salmon escaped into British Columbia's waters in 2008.  Gilford Island, where the escape occurred, is also home to a large First Nations population, many of whom rely upon subsistence fishing in the area.

Chamberlin, who is also secretary-treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, an organization that's pushing for more First Nations involvement as regulation of fish farms passes from the provincial to the federal government in February, said assurances from the industry that Atlantic salmon won't affect Pacific salmon have been proved wrong.

Sampler Platter 09.25.09

by: JayinPortland

Fri Sep 25, 2009 at 13:00:00 PM PDT

• The State of Oklahoma's lawsuit against the poultry industry for fouling (easy pun passed over, heh) the Illinois River watershed got underway in a Tulsa federal courthouse yesterday.  Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is suing Tyson, Cargill and nine other companies for violation of numerous state and federal laws.

• Jim Hightower takes on local-washing and corporate-speak.  "Such 'down-home' companies as Unilever and HSBC"... lol!

• The Humboldt jumbo squid that have been swarming the San Diego coastline all summer are now beginning to wash up as far north as the central Oregon Coast; a sardine mystery is being investigated on Oregon's North Coast; and US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco publish an Op-Ed on the government's Northwest salmon plan.

• Here's another piece on the culture clash between the old and the new in New York City street food.

• The City of San Jose, California has just passed what is called the nation's strictest bag ban. The ordinance will prohibit all retailers except for restaurants and nonprofits from giving out single-use plastic bags, and will only allow them to give out paper bags (which must be at least 40% recycled) for a fee.

• Sustainable transportation news roundup: a census survey released today ranks Portland as #1 of America's 30 largest cities in terms of bicycle commuting, with 6.4% of Portlanders getting to work via bike, a jump of more than 50% since 2007; Streetsblog NYC makes the case for openness in MTA data to improve riders' transit experience; and the feasability study on reinstatement of Amtrak's old Pioneer Route (Seattle & Portland to Salt Lake City & Denver via Eastern Oregon and Idaho) has just been released.  Why is it that highways and airports are never expected to be self-sustaining, while rail transit always is?  It's long past time that we stopped leaving most of the West to the tyranny of compulsory private automobile travel.

• The Bend-La Pine School District in Central Oregon is seeking to make its new elementary school one of the greenest public schools in the nation.

Sampler Platter 05.21.09

by: JayinPortland

Thu May 21, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

• Surprise!  A plastics industry-funded study claims that reuseable cloth grocery bags are a threat to their bottom line your health.  The gist of their study?  You can get really sick if you don't occasionally clean them, or if you also use them to carry dirty diapers and gym clothes.  (Note to self: keep soiled diapers separate from strawberries.)  Also, it's dangerous to use them for unwrapped raw meat.  (Btw - you can buy unwrapped raw meat at the grocery store?  Never knew that...)  They also point out that their brand new, single-use plastic bags are sterile and safe.  Natch.  In other news, the fossil fuel industry is going to soon claim that solar power is bad because if you sit in the sun and don't move for hours at a time, you could get a really bad burn.  And wind is just terrible because it can knock things over, and steal children's balloons and stuff...

• Action Alert: Let's ask Congress to put the "health" into health care reform, and increase funding for CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO).  This currently underfunded program provides funding to states for programs like building bike paths, starting up farmers' markets and initiating worksite wellness programs, in order to help prevent many of our diet-related diseases from ever becoming problems in the first place.

• California and Massachusetts have already passed statewide menu labeling legislation, Oregon is just about there, and now New York may become the next state to require chain restaurants (and convenience stores) to post calorie counts on their menus.

• Scientists and recreational divers are teaming up once again to conduct a fish census in the Puget Sound.

• U.S. District Judge James Redden has again told the federal government that their restoration plans for Columbia Basin salmon are too weak.

• A researcher in the Skagit River Delta has just come across a rare find, tidal beavers.  He also found that the beavers build prime habitat for threatened young salmon.

• Curtis Abbey mentioned this the other day, and in case you missed it - video of The Simpsons' take on fast food greenwashing is up at Grist.

Sampler Platter: "Don't Know What You've Got Til It's Gone" Edition

by: JayinPortland

Fri May 15, 2009 at 05:30:00 AM PDT

• Scientists with kitchen utensils and model-train glue represent the last hope for the Puget Sound's pinto abalone.

• We ain't gonna bring back paradise to the parking lots, but maybe we can make something out of them after all.  I remain a Kunstlerian skeptic about those places; but at least our thinking is on the right track these days...

• The online link is subscription-only, but if you have one Harper's has a great piece this month on Alaska's disappearing salmon.

• The birds and the bees still can't catch a break from DDT.

• Speaking of which, almost one in eight bird species worldwide currently face extinction.

• Yeah, when you're resorting to having to catch, sell and eat the babies of a popular fish species, that probably does not bode well for the future of said species...

• The number of eels in European waters are down by 95% over the last 25 years.

• The oldest surviving human culture in the Andes, who've been around for over 4,000 years, may soon become the latest victims of climate change.

• Let's close this out with a bit of good news - this piece of Ancient Oregon is now owned by all of us, and will be preserved forever.

Sampler Platter 05.13.09

by: JayinPortland

Wed May 13, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT

• The FDA has sent a warning letter to General Mills, telling the company to stop promoting Cheerios as a health food.  (For a funny take on the Right Wing blogosphere's outrage (grrrr!) at FDA's "attack" on America cereal, see here.)  Meanwhile, Health Canada unfortunately seems to want to make it easier for food manufacturers to be able to market junk as "health food" in their country...

• Elementary school students are snacking on (and learning about) healthy local produce in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Can't say this is really a surprise - from Grist, Monsanto is now firing off their propaganda on National Petrol, errrrr, National Public Radio.  Great article debunking Monsanto's claims, but it's not like the oil companies, ADM and other corporate interests haven't already been scrubbing themselves "clean" in their own greenshowers over the airwaves of NPR for years and years and years...

• Fantastic article from Ken Olsen at High Country News on the intersection of agriculture, business, politics, power and salmon - and what government ultimately needs to do to help restore wild salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.

More below the fold...  

Earth Day Fish & Water Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 13:59:55 PM PDT

• The American pharmaceutical industry is still dumping hundreds of millions of pounds of drug residues into our water supplies.

• Two California-based environmentalists and researchers are cycling 2,000 miles down the Pacific Coast to raise awareness about the massive plastic soup in the North Pacific.  I can't even come up with the words to describe how angry the picture with this article makes me - an adult turtle who was grossly deformed by crawling into a plastic ring while young, and whose body grew around it.  

• And also (we all saw this one coming), the plastic-bag industry and the American Chemistry Council are kicking up the greenwashing a few notches.

• An article from Canada looks at the ongoing attempts at sustainability in sushi restaurants.

• A commonly used home garden pesticide, carbaryl, which is sold under the brand name "Sevin" (which has also been classified by EPA as a likely human carcinogen and is banned in the UK, Germany and several other countries...), has been identified as a threat to salmon and steelhead populations throughout the Northwest.

• The National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking our input as to how to form the rules protecting the now-endangered Cook Inlet (Alaska) beluga whales.

• A new study finds that the world's major rivers are drying up, and the Christian Science Monitor takes a look at how things might play out along the Colorado River for the Southwestern United States and Mexico.

• The European Union on Wednesday called for major cuts in the European commercial fishing fleet, and is cracking down on illegal fishing, to help overfished stocks recover.  88% of EU stocks are overfished, according to the commission.

Sampler Platter Meets Pot Luck

by: JayinPortland

Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 19:00:00 PM PDT

• A nice piece from (Bend, OR's) Bend Weekly touches on farm-to-school, and describes how school district food buyers and local farmers can connect.

• Hooray for Oklahoma City!  The people of the city will soon be able to enjoy great local craft brews...and the best part?  Unlike their NBA team, they do not have to steal it from Seattle!

• 44 million dollars of federal stimulus money will go towards aiding migrating salmon and making more efficient use of irrigation water in Central Washington.

• The Cass County Board of Supervisors in Southwest Iowa have just approved funding that will make them the latest government to have a local food policy council and a regional foods coordinator.  Kick ass, Cass!

• A view from Across The Pond (besides AAF's awesome input, of course...) - John-Paul Flintoff writes about digging for Britain.

• Surprise!  A quick NY Times blog piece drools over Portland's food scene.  Again.  I agree with her on the first point, though - the prices are amazing here.  There are at least a dozen fantastic restaurants / cafes / brewpubs within walking distance of my apartment (Inner SE Portland) where I can get a great (local, seasonal, organic) meal for pretty much the same price as a fast "food" "value" meal.  And since most of them are based around healthy whole grains, they'll also keep you full for much longer than the empty calorie "convenience" crap ever could.

• Closing out National Library Week, I have to include this piece from Emily Underwood at High Country News on the importance of small-town libraries.

• Also from High Country News, Michele Haefele writes that United States Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is on the right track.

• From the "Yet More Corporate Astroturf" files: Agribiz interests in California are organizing and paying for phony protests.  IMO, we need to focus on the real problem here, which is the destructiveness of these ridiculously unsustainable agricultural techniques.  It isn't "Pacific smelt vs. workers".  Rather, the real issue is "corporate greed and shortsightedness vs. workers and the rest of humanity and wildlife".

Use this diary as an open thread...

Friday Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT

• A nice piece from Civil Eats keeps us up on what's going on in Montana's local food movement.

• PETA has called on Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker to ban construction of new fast-food restaurants in the city.  A 2007 study shows that 34 percent of Newarkers are obese, as opposed to the NJ statewide average of 22 percent.  I'd like to see more projects like this around the city, myself.

• Willamette Valley Vineyards has just launched what they claim is the world's first cork recycling program.

• This map allows you to follow the movements of 11 tagged grizzly bears throughout the City of Anchorage, Alaska.

• This week's edition of Eugene Weekly has a few cool pieces as part of this year's Earth Day edition.

• Blue whales are returning to the British Columbia coast for the first time in decades; but it's more likely due to a regular pattern of following food as ocean temperature cycles change, rather than an increase in the whale population.

• A piece from Seattlest covers an ongoing conflict caused by bycatch in the Alaskan pollock industry.

• If you happen to find yourself at the new Yankee Stadium hopefully to root heartily against the home team this year, the (Newark, NJ) Star-Ledger's Munchmobile covered the new food options at the stadium at yesterday's home opener.  Props to Peter Genovese for mentioning zeppole, which I haven't had (or even found!) since Summer '06 down the Jersey Shore.  My heart and arteries probably thank me for living 3,000 miles away from Jersey Shore food now, though.  Heh...

Wednesday Night Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Wed Apr 15, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PDT

• Two pieces from the LA Times: one on the connection between fast food and happiness in children (as the commenter says: of course there's a connection!  The stuff acts like a drug...); and another on the increasing sexualization of fast food advertising.

• Connecticut is now one step closer to banning the sale of plastic baby bottles, food containers and cups containing the dangerous industrial chemical bisphenol a.  The measure, which would also require warning labels on all food products sold in packaging containing BPA, unanimously passed a state legislative committee on Tuesday.  Connecticut would be the first state to pass such a ban.  Oregon, California, Hawaii and a handful of other states are also currently considering such legislation.

• A piece about a different BPA:  from High Country News, an investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration's influence on salmon research in the Columbia Basin.

• The volunteer work of a pair of law students working out of a Lewis & Clark Law School-based environmental nonprofit helped lead to this week's criminal sentencing of a Washington fish processing plant for spewing "chemically rendered chicken goo" into the Columbia River in violation of the Clean Water Act.

• A nice piece on a Washington family's mission-oriented worm raising business.

• Some good wildlife news from Alaska: the populations of two caribou herds in the state have recently jumped significantly.  The downside is that two other nearby herds are decreasing in numbers.

• Two pieces from Civil Eats: the Berkeley (CA) Farmers' Market has become the first market in the nation to eliminate all plastic bags AND plastic packaging; and Part 2 of a great interview with Gary Nabhan.

Food News: Vegan Pet Food? Smoke Shop Food Stamp Fraud?

by: Curtis Abbey

Sat Mar 28, 2009 at 03:59:25 AM PDT

Vegan pet food -- and the decision to force one's pet to go vegan -- is suddenly very buzzy. ABC News reports that it's a bit easier for a dog to go vegetarian than it is for a cat, and one person they interviewed said she suspects that "vegan" cats are supplementing their diets by hunting.

What would a vegan do in a situation where their vegan cat was caught with a mouse, or a fly, or whatever it is kitty attempts to dine on? Would you scold it? Or attempt to stop him/her from the action?

Warning this is a long blog!

Tuesday Afternoon Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 12:00:00 PM PDT

• An op-ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle takes on the way our government develops dietary guidelines.  Ouch -

  Here is a daily diet that meets [current] nutrition guidelines: Breakfast: 1 cup Fruit Loops; 1 cup skim milk; 1 package M&M milk chocolate candies; fiber and vitamin supplements. Lunch: Grilled cheddar cheeseburger. Dinner: 3 slices pepperoni pizza, with a 16-ounce soda and 1 serving Archway sugar cookies.

  This helps explain why 12-year-old schoolchildren develop thickening of their carotid arteries to the brain, and 80 percent of 20-year-old soldiers, dying in combat, are found to have coronary artery heart disease.

• Idaho may become the next state to change assets tests in order to allow more people to become eligible for food stamps.

• The Nature Conservancy purchased the 4,136-acre Shasta Big Springs Ranch in California, including the entire 2.2-mile length of Big Springs Creek, in an effort to restore salmon in the Klamath River system.

• A group of medical and fisheries experts in Canada are making a health and environmental argument to reduce fish consumption in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

• Is the Grocery Manufacturers Association part of a frightful (boo!) "socialist experiment", too?  Or are they just hypocrites?

  Although a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association broadly welcomed the news that the legislation had been put forward, he criticized the proposal that industry should pay for plant inspections. He told FoodNavigator-USA.com: "We believe that food safety is a right that all Americans have...and that it should be paid for by Congress appropriating general funds."

  How about paying some taxes then, guys?

Monday Evening Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Mon Mar 16, 2009 at 18:26:29 PM PDT

• A couple of really cool interactive tools from Periscopic; all kinds of maps, graphs, historical data, etc on the state of Pacific salmon - State of the Salmon, and the Visual Marine Stewardship Council web tool

• NOAA Fisheries Service proposed last week to list Pacific smelt as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

• The Corvallis Environmental Center in Corvallis, OR (home of Oregon State University) is organizing a tour of local homes who keep chickens and ducks.

• The first salmon-eating Columbia River sea lion was just killed at Bonneville Dam last week, under a new policy that will relocate or kill up to 30 sea lions from Bonneville this year.

• The Klamath, California-based Yurok Indian tribe is in discussions with wildlife experts and state and federal officials to re-establish condor populations in Oregon, where the largest North American land bird hasn't been seen in over a century.

• The US government on Saturday permanently banned downer cows from our food supply, replacing the temporary partial ban that has been in place for the last 5 years.

Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Mar 13, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

• Planning your garden? Check out the Cool Foods Garden Guide for all kinds of useful help! This is the garden guide I think I've needed my whole life. They break it down so easily, I really think I might be able to grow something!! If only I had a yard...

• Bill Marler shares the story of Stephanie Smith. She was a dance instructor when she ate an E. coli-tainted burger at age 20. Now, ate age 21, afer nine months in the hospital (including two in a coma), she hopes to be able to walk again. Wow.

• Set your Tivo for HBO's Death on a Factory Farm, premiering March 16 at 10pm. It's a documentary that follows an animal rights undercover investigator for six weeks on a factory hog farm in Ohio. Just a word of caution - it's pretty graphic.

• Bryant Terry, co-author of Grub with Anna Lappe, has a new book out: Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine. Hmm, I might be interested in this one.

• Alternet says our greatest concern isn't diet or exercise - it's neighborhood. Very interesting comment on Americans' health problems.

• An interesting trend in wine-making: Making the bottles lighter to use less glass and have a lighter footprint on the planet.

• A tax on chocolate? Ohhh, hell no! Fortunately, this wasn't proposed in the U.S. And even if somebody DID tax chocolate, I'd still eat it.

• Will Obama appoint a salmon czar? Some groups are asking him to do so, to coordinate fishing and protect wild salmon so that we can continue to have a sustainable salmon supply.

• Is the banana in trouble? This article takes a look at bananas' lack of genetic diversity. This opens it up to great risk if a disease were to start wiping it out, and it looks like that might happen...

• On the subject of bananas, Chiquita wants a suit against them dismissed. The suit alleges that Chiquita paid off Columbian paramilitary groups that killed a lot of people in Columbia.

Friday Night Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 19:25:09 PM PST

• Under growing public pressure, six major companies will stop selling hard plastic baby bottles containing the dangerous industrial chemical BPA; in a major victory for human beings, and the first of what will hopefully be many losses for pseudo-scientific shills who place corporate profits over human health.

• In other BPA news, recent tests have found the toxic hormone-mimicking substance exists in at least 96% of soft drinks tested in Canada -

  Dr. vom Saal says there is also a growing body of scientific literature, based on animal experiments, that has found harmful effects due to BPA at concentrations up to 1,000 times below Health Canada's safety limit.

• The Federation of Canadian Municipalities will vote Saturday on a proposal urging cities and towns across Canada to ban sale of bottled water within / on municipal facilities and properties.

• Vancouver, BC's City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to allow urban backyard chickens, and hopefully soon a group of citizens of Salem, Oregon will be able to overturn that city's current ban as well.

• A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, published in the journal Bioscience, concludes that the greatest threat to Northwest salmon are invasive species -

  The study, which was published in the journal Bioscience, is sure to be controversial because much of the Northwest's multi-billion dollar salmon recovery work is centered on improving habitat, mitigating the damage of power-producing dams and curtailing commercial or recreational fishing.

  This report argues the greatest threat to fish are non-native species like crappie or bass that can eat up juvenile salmon as the make their way downstream from their birthplace to the ocean.