Sometimes corporations make good choices.
On Tuesday Target announced that they will no longer sell farmed salmon in their stores. In this press release they stated that beginning immediately they will switch to wild-caught Alaskan salmon, and will have only wild salmon in their sushi by the end of 2010. Who knows whether they are doing it because they care about the environment, its good for PR, or because of pressure from citizen activists. Regardless of the reason, when a major corporation makes a decision like this, it has all kinds of trickle-down effects on the fishing industry, the environment, other retailers, and our health.
This announcement is good news for people, fish, and the environment. Here are five reasons why it’s smart to switch to wild salmon:
1. Dye a food to make it look like that food?
Wild salmon are”salmon-colored” because they eat krill, turning them a rich pinkish-orange color. Farm raised salmon are fed manufactured pellets made of corn meal, fish meal, genetically modified canola oil, chicken feces, soy, and other discarded animal materials. In order to make them look like the salmon we are used to they are fed “salmon-colored” dye! Without it, their flesh would be a dull grey color.
2. Farmed salmon are sickly creatures.
Raised in packed pens with barely enough room to swim, farmed salmon play host to sea lice and other infections, which spread easily in crowded conditions. To combat diseases, salmon farmers shower fish with antibiotics. The antibiotics then seep into the surrounding waterways, polluting the waters and killing the healthy bacteria that live on the ocean floor.
3. Farmed salmon is full of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. These are not good for you.
Scientists have shown a link between PCBs and cancer — making farmed salmon actually dangerous to eat. The farmed salmon absorb PCBs from the fish meal they are fed — which has high levels of toxins, including PCBs.
4. Farm raised salmon are affecting native salmon populations.
When farm salmon escape from their pens (yea freedom!) they often out-compete the native salmon for food and breeding. This threatens the wild salmon population and the whole eco-system they are a part of.
5. WASTE!
Salmon are raised in open cages, which means the concentrated poop of thousands of salmon flows right into the surrounding waters. This is the same amount of waste as the raw sewage produced by a town of 65,000 people. Fish waste spreads bacteria, germs, chemicals, toxins, and diseases.
For more information on salmon farming, check out this very informative and pleasant-to-look-at website.
And p.s., even though Target is selling wild salmon now, they are still a mega-corporation that pays employees low wages and busts up unions. May I suggest buying wild salmon at your local fish market instead?
