Farmed B.C. salmon could soon carry federal organic label
By Sarah Schmidt, Postmedia News July 14, 2010 5:02 PM Comments (1)
OTTAWA — Farmed fish raised in open net pens in the ocean — blamed for threatening wild salmon on the West Coast — could soon have Canada's organic stamp of approval on their packaging if the federal government implements its plan for new organic aquaculture standards.
The summer consultations have just begun, but the draft proposal, presented by the Canadian General Standards Board and organic aquaculture working group at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, has already fired up a debate about the industry's environmental practices and whether the move just muddies the meaning of "organic" for consumers.
Ottawa's proposed organic certification system for farmed fish also puts Canada at odds with the United States, where draft rules of the U.S. National Standards Board would disqualify non-native species that are raised in open net pens from carrying the U.S. government's organic label.
This would mean the overwhelming majority of fish produced by B.C. salmon farms would fail the U.S. organic test, but meet the proposed Canadian standards.
While Atlantic Canada has some aquaculture operators, salmon farming is now the single-largest food production sector in the B.C. economy, providing farmed Atlantic salmon to consumers across Canada and internationally.
B.C. is also the world's fourth-largest farmed salmon producer in the world, after Norway, Chile and Scotland, according to the federal government.
Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said consumers need not fret about the government's organic certification proposal for farmed fish because industry would only get behind strong standards.
"From our point of view, we would want to see that the standards are strong to maintain consumer confidence in the organic designation," said Walling, emphasizing that in consultations with Ottawa on the draft proposals, companies were "very committed to achieving a very high level of environmental measurement and social responsibility and sustainability, so my expectation is that would be a starting point for those companies."
Conservationists and organic specialists disagree.
"The terms organic and 'aquaculture' are logically incompatible, as are 'organic' and 'caged layers,'" University of Guelph organic farming specialist Ann Clark, said Wednesday.
"The fundamental problem, whether with livestock and poultry or with fish, is the concentration of animals in space, which creates not simply pathogen and behavioural problems but a cascade of knock-on problems relating from the manure. These same problems can occur in organic systems, which is one of the reasons why organic standards mandate access to pasture."
That's why Shauna MacKinnon, seafood sustainability specialist at the Vancouver-based Living Oceans Society, is adamant in her opposition allowing industry to slap an organic label on fish raised in open net pens.
"The problems with the pens being directly in the ocean is that waste from the farm — the fish feces and waste feed — goes directly into the ocean, so there's no treatment or recapture of that waste, so you have impacts on the biodiversity around those farms," said MacKinnon, adding that the use of use of antibiotics or chemicals to limit the spread of such parasites as sea lice is also contrary to organic principles.
"A standard like this really undermines what consumers expect when it comes to organic product because they expect something that is more environmentally sustainable and they expect it not to have antibiotics or chemical treatments used in the product. I think that's very important for consumers and that's the reason they're willing to pay more," said MacKinnon.
The fisheries critics for the Green Party and the New Democratic Party also say farmed fish raised in open pens should not qualify as organic.
Noting there are higher standards in the draft document for closed containment operators to use the organic label, Janice Harvey, the New Brunswick-based critic for the Greens, said this "simply proves the point that they shouldn't even be considered for organic labelling, and it's going to give them an unfair advantage compared to fish produced in closed containment systems."
New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Finn Donnelly, the NDP critic, said that "stringent standards that I'm aware of for the organic certification process have a level that don't allow certain chemicals that are considered toxic chemicals in the food production process. And I know farmed salmon have chemicals injected into them.
"These elements, right away, I would question as to whether how those toxic chemicals would be considered non-detrimental to the product or the environment, two things which I think the organic certification process is concerned with."
Donnelly has tabled a private member's bill to amend the Fisheries Act to require that finfish aquaculture be carried out in closed containment facilities, allowing for a five-year transition period.
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http://www.theprovince.com/life/Farmed+salmon+could+soon+carry+federal+organic+label/3278832/story.html#ixzz0ti1cUdLK
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