Time article a farce
Opinion
A recent article in Time magazine, Should I Eat Salmon, written by Mandy Oaklander, backs up none of its anti-salmon farming assertions with facts and appears to be yet another example of how interests for the Alaskan sockeye fishery pay to have their product marketed.
To the general public, this article may provide a very logical breakdown of why eating farmed salmon should be avoided, and gently pushes the reader to think that the only way to go is to eat wild Alaskan fish.
However, the article is based on nonsensical and biologically incorrect information and is blatantly driven by a hidden agenda of marketing.
Let’s break it down shall we.
The article first goes into describing the nutritional content of a serving of “wild” salmon, “A small 3-oz serving of wild salmon has about 156 calories and 23 grams of protein, plus 6 grams of fat.” Without due diligence, Ms Oaklander has lumped all wild (assuming Pacific?) salmon together. Although she does add that the fatty acids are salmon’s “claim to fame”, what she does not acknowledge is that there are very different nutritional contents among sockeye, coho, chum, pink and chinook salmon. Eating a 3 oz serving of pink salmon will not result in 2-3 grams of omega-3 fats. According to her “expert”, Julia Renee Zumpano, “farmed salmon may contain more saturated fat, calories, pollutants, and antibiotics than wild salmon”.
This is painfully incorrect. I am not sure where Ms Zumpano got her information from, but it wasn’t based on facts. There is no difference in the amount of saturated fat or calories between farmed and wild fish. And as for pollutants and antibiotics? In reality, wild salmon migrate thousands of miles, passing many different industrialized areas on their way before returning to coastal waters where they are caught. Farmed salmon are grown in pristine waters that are selected based on the lack of pollutants in the area. So that is also false. Perhaps given the rare outbreaks of bacterial diseases, antibiotics are added to the feed of farmed Atlantic salmon. However, before they are saleable for human consumption, fish must go through a “withdrawal” period, whereby the drugs are metabolized and are no longer present in the animal. So again. False.
Another “expert” in the article, Dr David Katz, says “Wild is better than farmed”. And apparently all the other “experts” from the article agree with him. How about asking people who might actually know the facts and not just opinion, Mandy?
The next “expert” in the article claims “Farmed salmon may not deliver as many omega-3s”. Peter D Nichols, senior principal research scientist at CSIRO Food, Nutrition & Bioproducts in Australia, who has researched long-chain omega-3 (LC Omega-3) oils. “The content of the LC Omega-3 has generally decreased in farmed salmon both in Australia and globally,” he says. “The LC omega-3 content is about half of what it used to be, although we should also note that this is still generally 10-100 fold higher than most other food groups.”
Again. Where are these “scientists” getting their information? Atlantic salmon are the oiliest of all the salmon – more than sockeye, pink, chum, coho and chinook salmon. This is a fact. If consumers are wanting to get the highest omega-3 injection, eating Atlantic salmon is the way to do it.
The kicker of the article (and a glimpse into the hidden agenda) comes next.
Tim Fitzgerald, director of impact in the oceans program at the Environmental Defense Fund, says: “Not all farmed salmon is bad, though… Although most generic farmed salmon - often labeled ‘Atlantic’ in stores—still comes with a variety of environmental concerns, a number of new companies are upping their game and showing that salmon farming doesn’t have to be on everyone’s ‘avoid’ list,” he says.
He goes on to list his “favorite sustainably farmed salmon” as Atlantic Sapphire, Kuterra, and Verlasso. But for the “overall most sustainable salmon” choose wild Alaskan salmon, says Kimberly Warner, a senior scientist at Oceana, a nonprofit focused on ocean conservation. “Wild Alaskan salmon are managed well in the US,” she says.
Hmm... So Kuterra and Atlantic Sapphire (very small Atlantic salmon land-based operations) are fine? Weren’t they just saying how wild fish is better for you and that farmed (Atlantic salmon) doesn’t have the good stuff that wild fish has? A direct contradiction, and another example of how this article is full of nonsense.
And wild Alaskan salmon? Anyone who actually looks into the source of Alaskan salmon would wonder about the legitimacy of this fish as the most sustainable option.
An overwhelming majority of Alaskan “wild” fish is actually not “wild” at all. They are reared in hatcheries, released into the ocean as smolts, and then harvested at the end of their life. What about that is wild? Additionally, in many cases, the fish are raised for a little bit in the ocean, otherwise referred to as “ranching”, and then caught again in a couple of years for the markets. It is absolutely unacceptable for these fish to be marketed as “wild salmon”. Salmon ranching is just glorified salmon farming, except that ranched/hatchery reared fish are allowed to enter the food chain (thus consuming 100% of wild feeder fish as protein, compared to about 25-35% of protein in commercial pellets), they are allowed to breed with natural populations, which research has clearly shown, weakens the genetic pool of the natural populations of salmon (something that absolutely doesn’t occur with Atlantic salmon farming in Canada), … So, you tell me. Does these fish seem like the “more sustainable choice”?
Journalists like Mandy Oaklander at Time magazine need to practice due diligence when writing these types of articles, and report the actual facts, not what people think. What is consistently misrepresented to the public by the media as well as by sustainable certification groups, is that Alaskan salmon is somehow “wild”, and therefore, is “more sustainable” and “the better choice”. Which is just false. Call a spade a spade. They are both farmed salmon. And both good for you to eat.
