We do know that fish is important for our health. However, this is a complex issue. Logically we'd think farm-raised would be better for our environment and better for us. (by the way, "ocean-raised" fish is the same as "farm-raised" just a new marketing name. Farm-raised fish are fish in pens in the ocean and when this got a bad wrap they changed the name, that's all!) But we have learned that farm raised means that the fish don't get lots of swimming room, are prone to disease (and therefore fed antibiotics) and can get out and infect the fish in the wild. They are also high in mercury.
"Where does this come from?" is the most important question you can ask yourself about anything you are consuming.
Let's look at Farmed Salmon. Since Farmed Salmon are fed pellets instead of what they eat in the wild, three elements are affected:
1. First, the food that they normally eat in the wild converts into powerful omega 3s for us; the farm raised salmon doesn't have as high nutritional value.
2. Second, the food they eat naturally helps them turn that beautiful pink color to which we are accustomed; the farm raised are therefore fed colorings to make them more palatable to our eye.
3. Finally, the food they eat affects how they taste and there is truly no comparison in flavor or texture.
When choosing to eat fish, we must consider:
1. The importance of fish to our health with valuable Omega-3s, protein, low fat.
2. The sustainability of the fish, that it is not overfished and that it is safe for our environment.
3. The health of the fish and the life of the fish (what it eats, how it lives).
4. Cost. We really can't afford to eat farmed salmon.
5. Taste.
Fish, particularly cold water oily fish, have valuable Omega 3s. We are just now exploring all the benefits of these EFAs and are finding that they are invaluable to good health. They help reduce risks of heart disease, cancer, age-related blindness and eye problems, arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases as well as keep a healthy circulatory system. We should strive for two to three servings (total of 6 - 12 ounces per week as one serving is considered 3 but can be as much as 6 ounces) per week of a fish high in Omega 3s.
We know that wild Salmon has great benefits; however, most grocery stores and restauants that offer "salmon" are offering a genetically engineered (farmed) salmon that is taking over the environment. Or, we find out, that because of the way the fish is caught, it's habitats are being damaged and it's becoming endangered. We have to carefully look at where the fish is caught and whether or not the fishery is sustainable. It is important that we make sure our fish is Sustainable and safe for the environment.
It is also important that we make sure THE FISH is healthy and therefore truly healthful. Farm-raised fish are raised in small pens in the ocean secured by nets or in ponds, depending upon the fish species. As with most industries, maximizing revenues is key so they will stock a pond with as many fish as they can leaving very little room for the fish to move about freely and they are fed pellets of food instead of their natural food (sounds like the chicken and cattle scenarios all over again). This, in turn, doesn't allow them to use their muscles naturally nor convert their natural food into powerful Omega 3s for us. Therefore, farm-raised fish doesn't have the health benefits of Wild fish. Therefore, farm-raised salmon doesn't have the color of natural salmon and they are fed colorings to help make the salmon palatable for our plates.
"Wild salmon become pink by eating sea creatures like krill, which contain a carotenoid called astaxanthin. Farmed salmon are naturally grayish but turn pink when they are fed various sources of astaxanthin, including one that is chemically synthesized and others that originate from yeast or microalgae." NY Times, Marian Burros
And since they are crammed in next to one another, disease can spread quickly so they are fed antibiotics. And they are infested with sea lice, 30,000 times more than normal! Then they get out of their pens and wreak havoc on our delicate ecosystem. These farmed fish consume more of our natural resources and infest other salmon with sea lice and other diseases.
We've heard this story all too often. Farm-Raised fish is bad for our planet, our bodies and our future. Make a powerful statement and refuse to eat or purchase farm-raised fish.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (www.ucsusa.org), over 68% of all seafood consumed in the United States is imported, and most of it is industrially produced. Many of these commodities are farm-raised and often involve little oversight regarding antibiotic drug use. While the U.S. government has standards that should ban imports with high levels of antibiotics in seafood, there is essentially no enforcement. Farmed salmon have more antibiotics administered by weight than any other form of livestock. Farmed salmon have significantly higher levels of PCBs, dioxin, and other cancer causing agents over wild salmon.
We eat fish for the omega 3s and to lower your risk of a heart attack. Farm-raised salmon is high in mercury. Mercury can actually increase our risk of heart attack. Our waters, and therefore our fish, have become contaminated with mercury because of all the industrial pollution. When it enters the water, it is converted into toxic methylmercury and it is consumed by the smaller fish and then the smaller fish are consumed by the larger fish. Larger predatory fish are higher in mercury than smaller fish because it accumulates in their bodies over time. The older and larger the fish, the higher it's levels of mercury. Mercury is of particular concern to growing children and babies in utero. Therefore, women hoping to one day become pregnant (mercury stores in your fat, remember), nursing and pregnant moms, as well as growing children need to be even more cautious. It's important that we choose wild fish that is lowest in levels of mercury. As a guideline, adults should not exceed 0.5ppm of mercury and the women/nursing/pregnant /children group should not exceed 0.2ppm per week.
Many fish, including farmed salmon, are also contaminated with PCBs. Farmed salmon has far higher (7 times!) levels of PCBs in their system than wild salmon.
Unlike farmed salmon, wild Alaskan salmon species grow free of antibiotics, pesticides, synthetic coloring agents, growth hormones and GMOs, and Wild Alaskan Salmon has the least amount of mercury of almost any fish.
Cost...Can We Afford It?
It may seem that farmed salmon are cheaper than the real thing. The price per pound may indeed be less. However, we can't really afford farmed salmon. There is actually a Net Loss with Farmed salmon. How so? Salmon is carnivorous and need to eat fish. The fish farms instead feed them pellets of fish meal and fish oil (and added coloring agents to give their flesh that orange glow that we are accustomed to seeing on salmon) and this fish meal food is made up of, you guessed it, wild fish. Instead of making the fish venture off to find their food naturally, we are giving them free processed man-made fish meal. It takes about 8 tons of wild fish to make up only 1 ton of fish oil for their feed. That 8 tons of wild fish would have fed a lot many more fish in it's natural state. Therefore it takes almost 3 tons of fish to make 1 ton of farmed salmon. This is diminishing our resources of wild fish. There is a real problem that there may not be enough fish to create the fish meal. They are now looking into alternative sources of protein and colorings to make them seem "real" to the consumers. Plans are in the works to force this carnivorous fish into becoming vegetarian. Of course, there are no studies on the effects this will have on the fish or on the value of the fish as food for us.
Plus the fish aren't eating their natural food. They are being "forced" to eat ground up fish that are highly contaminated. Farmed salmon also has "significantly hither concentrations of PCBs, Dioxin, and other cancer-causing contaminants that salmon caught in the wild" according to a new study.
We also know that farmed fish don't have the same valuable omega 3 as wild salmon. How much more do we need to consume (and purchase) in order to get those Essential Fatty Acids? That alone should cause us to pause over the cost. At the very basics, we eat for nutrition. That is being washed down. Farmed fish are not nearly as healthful for us.
At present, farmed salmon presents a tremendous stress on our delicate aquatic ecosystem. This means less fish for us as consumers and less fish for our oceans, which in turn affects other fish as well as plant, algae, and other living creatures of the ocean. How much more will we spend to try and correct this problem in tax dollars and consumer dollars? It's more expensive to harvest farmed salmon.
Furthermore, farmed fish are in overcrowded pens in the ocean who live in feces infested waters. They are ridden with sea lice. This spoils the surrounding marine life and fish migrating (like wild salmon) past the pen. Since they live in such close proximity, farmed fish are fed antibiotics to ward off infection which could wipe out the entire lot. They are given other drugs also. This takes a toll on the surrounding aquatic life as well as on us consumers. Farmed salmon have more antibiotics administered by weight than any other form of livestock.
Atlantic salmon is being farmed in the Pacific. Atlantic salmon is actually not a natural species of salmon to the Pacific Ocean. They are escaping from their nets (or being let free, especially when there is a sickness in the pen so that the "fishermen" can avoid a fine and avoid a costly clean up - they are fined if they let them free officially but they are not if they "escape" and that way any additional costs to clear up a disease are also eliminated) and are wreaking havoc on the delicate ecosystem. They can spread disease. Many are genetically modified to grow quickly so they eat more. The farmed salmon that escape are causing the demise of the Wild Pacific Salmon. Millions "escape" every year.
Farmed fishing is not sustainable fishing. Farmed fishing is damaging to our environment and our future.
And who do we trust to get wild salmon? To add another layer to our frustration, now we must know our source is reputable.
According to recent testing done for the New York Times in March 2005, most supermarkets that offer "wild" salmon are really selling farmed salmon with a heftier price tag! (Farmed goes for $5 - $12/lb while Wild can go for $29/lb.) The NY Times tested for artificial color in the salmon! And it's not necessarily the fault of the store, people have seen truckloads of fish get remarked as wild and sent out across the stores. Information gathered from www.deliciousorganics.com
__________________
"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~
I refuse to eat ANY seafood that's farm raised. I went to Kroger yesterday, looked
in seafood deli and saw ONLY farm raised fish available - mostly salmon and tilapia,
so I didn't get any. I did choose some scallops. Lady behind the counter asked if
there was anything else - I said, "No, everything else seems to be farm raised, so
I'll pass." Unless you complain about farm raised seafood and refuse to purchase it,
the stores will never change.
"LET YOUR VOICE/CHOICES BE HEARD!"
__________________
May you always have..Love to Share, Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!
It would be impossible to supply wild caught salmon to all the people who want to eat salmon.
jfh, do you have any further info on the life of farm raised Talapia?
__________________ "The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org
Tilapia are a good choice for farm-raised fish. They are fed on algae and greens, which are a cleaner feed source.
The Content of Favorable and Unfavorable Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Found in Commonly Eaten FishThis analysis revealed that trout and Atlantic salmon contained relatively high concentrations of n-3 PUFA, low n-6:n-3 ratios, and favorable saturated fatty acid plus monounsaturated fatty acid to PUFA ratios. In contrast, tilapia (the fastest growing and most widely farmed fish) and catfish have much lower concentrations of n-3 PUFA, very high ratios of long chain n-6 to long chain n-3 PUFAs, and high saturated fatty acid plus monounsaturated fatty acid to PUFA ratios.
jfh, do you have any further info on the life of farm raised Talapia?
On the one hand:
The largest-scale pure fish farms use a system derived (admittedly much refined) from the New Alchemy Institute in the 1970s. Basically, large plastic fish tanks are placed in a greenhouse. A hydroponic bed is placed near, above or between them. When tilapia are raised in the tanks, they are able to eat algae, which naturally grows in the tanks when the tanks are properly fertilized.
....
Current growers use a variety of proprietary tricks to keep fish healthy, reducing their expenses for salt and waste water discharge permits. Some veterinary authorities speculate that ultraviolet ozone disinfectant systems (widely used for ornamental fish) may play a prominent part in keeping the Tilapia healthy with recirculated water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_farming
On the other hand:
Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from (unknown - I think Wake Forest University School of Medicine). https://www.news-medical.net/news/2008/07/08/39831.aspx
Our favorite fish are the ones we've caught ourselves. As far as store bought, we like Salmon the best, and Tilapia, is way down near the bottom on the list.
Quote:
Sep 22 2009, by Helene York Seafood Choices: Wild or Farmed?
I read a paper this week about the state of the world's seafood supplies. As a peer reviewer, I gave it closer attention than I otherwise might, but I was hooked because it was well-articulated and offered visually compelling charts to keep me reading way past my bedtime. Forty-odd pages of facts, figures, and stories later, though, I came to view the paper as very depressing.
Fish farms now provide more than 50 percent of the world's supply of seafood. Ultimately, this is depressing because it represents both a decline in seafood landings (i.e. the quantity of fish brought into port) and also the rise of industrial-scale production instead of the regional-scale fishing that has sustained coastal communities for 1,000 years. Policy analysts who measure protein available per person--a key indicator in regions of the world where there are chronic shortages--will see some positive news in this report. It will also offer good news for consumers who eat fish for the primary purpose of ingesting fish as a source of omega 3s or lean protein.
But the oceans are in serious trouble, lakes aren't in great shape either, and those of us who like seafood because we enjoy the taste are losing out. I like my fish to taste like, well, fish, whether it's pan-fried, smoked in a wok, crisped on a grill, or pickled with onions and spices. If I want tofu, I'll eat tofu, but my fish should taste like it comes from a natural waterway, not...nowhere.
Awareness of sustainable seafood issues has grown enormously among consumers. Their purchasing behavior, however, hasn't yet matched their concern.
Because my job involves purchasing strategy, I often get to taste foods before we encourage our chefs to buy them--one of the great reasons to work in food, as opposed to, say, insurance. I've tasted two aquaculture species lately: one that is on the "Best Choice" list for Seafood Watch, the gold standard for seafood sustainability, and one whose production system is being evaluated by a science panel next week. The first, a flash-frozen Arctic char, was delicious. I can't say it matched the flavor of wild char, because it's been too many years since I had a wild version. But the farmed salmon was simply awful.
Nearly all farmed salmon is grown in a manner analogous to cattle: their open-ocean net pens are enormous (the size of airline hangars); they are fed four to five times the fish protein over the course of their maturation process that they produce (much like the inefficient grain-to-meat conversion of beef); and they generally wreck the habitats of native species with their waste droppings--abundant, untreated, and unregulated. Some salmon farmers are trying to do better. The salmon I tasted is grown under much more positive environmental circumstances. But is growing bland seafood a good thing?
As the report notes, awareness of sustainable seafood issues has grown enormously among consumers. Their purchasing behavior, however, hasn't yet matched their concern. Misinformation abounds about whether "farmed" or "wild" species are better--as if the choice were so simple. I've heard many people say they eat farmed salmon because wild stocks are in decline and they want to help "keep the pressure off." But the pressure isn't on wild Pacific salmon, because the fishery is well managed by public agencies who control the amount of salmon that is caught. That's what makes it a sustainable resource. (Wild Atlantic salmon, by contrast, is commercially extinct, so by definition all Atlantic salmon on any menu is farmed.)
Despite a few examples of fishery rebuilding--like the Atlantic swordfish, which regulators have protected from extinction by limiting how much could be caught--many wild stocks are in a sorry state. Overfishing, by-catch rates, and seafloor dredging remain concerns in more than 70 percent of the world's fisheries. Ocean acidification is taking its toll on crustaceans--the bellwether species for changes in the water's pH balance. The condition of the oceans makes responsible aquaculture necessary.
I eat seafood from highly rated aquaculture systems. Oysters and mussels are on top of the list, because they taste great and make a positive environmental contribution to the seaways in which they are raised. Professionally, I also work to make these species available nationally for chefs at our cafes across the country. But there are many people, especially 20-year-olds at college, who aren't yet fans of the "fishy" stuff. Many are relatively new to eating fish, and they prefer tilapia--or, as one of my chef colleagues calls it, "tofu of the sea."
Tofu (sorry, I mean tilapia) has in 15 years gone from being unknown in the U.S. to hitting Number 7 on the seafood popularity list. We eat 500 million pounds of it every year. Its very blandness is considered a virtue. As a species that eats anything, tilapia can be raised in a manner that does "take the pressure off," because--unlike salmon--tilapia can be raised on plant-based feeds rather than other fish.
But industrial-scale production has several drawbacks, and one of them is taste. That shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with land-based food production. If foods are grown in a mono-cropped manner, with all their inputs carefully monitored, and scaled up to enormous size, the goal will be sameness, not specialness. It will be a very depressing day indeed if the only environmentally sustainable seafood species are farmed.
__________________
"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~
1) Surprisingly, canned salmon is wild caught in alaska.
2) For fresh fish, look closely, way too much farm raised stuff out there and farm raised salmon is dyed and fed antibiotics/chemicals etc.
3) There was an article on yahoo a yr ago that tilapia is worse than eating bacon. It is basically a poison. Not to get crude, but in other countries, they raise tilapia next to areas that they raise ducks/poultry in. They dump abunch of fry into a pond and they grow eating poutry feces.
Of all the foods out there, there is nothing better than great sushi. Too bad in the states , most of it is farm raised.
In central Texas, catfish are the popular fish. Bottom feeders; and they taste like it too.
There is a restaurant on a pier that is very popular. People buy extra orders of French fries; so the can feed the catfish. The fish know when it is lunch or supper time and crowd in for the food. They are so thick that ducks can walk on top of them to try to catch the food first.
Personally, it is a rare event that I even eat any kind of seafood - other than powdered kelp. I'm quit happy with land meat and fowl.
Forget Sushi - Just the thought of raw fish turns me off!
I've heard that canned Salmon is safer too. All of this seems to bring us back
to sardines. I don't really like sardines but force myself to eat them occasionally
on crackers.
__________________
May you always have..Love to Share, Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!
Forget Sushi - Just the thought of raw fish turns me off!
I've heard that canned Salmon is safer too. All of this seems to bring us back
to sardines. I don't really like sardines but force myself to eat them occasionally
on crackers.
Get the small sardines packed in olive oil, they are much better. I have to get to the following places before the dollar collapses:
Spain
France
I hear the sardines there are completely different than what we get here. Much better.
SALMON - WILD vs. FARMED
Farmed Salmon vs Wild Caught
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