Organic fish criteria approved
USA: An advisory board to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to, and approved, criteria which will make it possible to label farmed "organic". This is viewed as great news for the aquaculture industry. Environmentalists and probably Alaska salmon fishermen, see this as a defeat.
A major issue during the discussions leading to this week's recommendation has been whether farmed fish, in particular carnivorous species like salmon raised in ocean cages, could be labeled organic.
The National Organic Standards Board, which approved the organic standard earlier this week, stated that farmed fish can carry the organic label if the feed mix used to grow the fish does not exceed 25 percent wild fish raw material of the total feed content. Further, the wild fish used cannot be sourced from forage species, such as menhaden, that have declined drastically as the demand for farmed fish has skyrocketed.
According to a press release, Wally Stevens, executive director of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, said that "Finally, maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of defining what's organic." "The challenge is to figure out how we can produce a healthy protein product with a proper regard to where the feed comes from."
The new criteria was blasted by environmentalists and consumer advocates. In particular, they questioned why up to 25 percent of fish feed could be made up of what they term as non-organic material, while all other animals certified as organic must eat 100 percent organic feed.
Huge amounts of time and effort has been put in by advisors and government officials to "hammer out" this organic fish standard. Such standard will be important when competing in the organic food and beverage market. Estimates show that this market has increased from USD 1 billion in 1990 to approximately USD 20 billion in 2007. The industry expects the market to be almost USD 24 billion this year. One driving force has been the increasing fear among the average consumer about food safety.
