Friend Don't Let Friends Eat Farmed Salmon

farmed salmon are fine--kept on land. But in open net farms planted in the ocean, they're a killer. Alexantra Morton has been warning about the damage fish farms are doing to the wild stock for decades. Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team have heard the message. When you buy salmon, look for west coast wild-caught salmon. Or buy pink salmon (so cheap no one bothers to farm them).
If in doubt about what fish to buy, check out either Dr. David Suzuki's list, or the one from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Salmon Confidential

Healthy salmon heart on left. One infected with piscine reovirus on right.
Frame-grab from Salmon Confidential

I've just finished watching the excellent new documentary Salmon Confidential (watch for free at the link) and I have to say, while enraging, I'm not surprised. This is the story of our federal government refusing to hear that there might be a problem with fish farms. It's a story of political gagging, attacks on whistle-blowers, and, ultimately, a complete failure to safeguard our food system. And what the hell else is new.
I cannot write a precis that would do the film justice, so I'm only going to encourage you to spend an hour watching the story unfold. And, if you are a BC resident as I am, make sure to raise the issue now, during the run-up to the election, and then vote for whatever candidate acknowledges that something has to be done about this.
At it's core, this film is about more than salmon; it's about enclosing the commons on the ocean, and, where it cannot be enclosed, destroying the resource and replacing it with one that can be enclosed. It is, in part, the culmination of a 250 year old war on the First Nations: destroy the food source and you destroy those dependent on it.

Tunagate Mark II

The CFIA today announced that 240,000 Atlantic salmon infected with ISA have been released for sale into the Canadian market--because the US won't allow them over the border. There is apparently no science either way on the question of whether or not ISA infected fish are acceptable for human consumption. The Harper government is saying that there is no reason to worry--after all, no doctor has ever reported a problem from someone eating ISA infected salmon. Of course, doctors haven't been looking for illness caused by eating contaminated salmon....
CFIA normally pays a per head price for ISA infected salmon, and orders a cull of the entire lot in contact with the observed infected fish. But this time, Cooke Aquaculture has been allowed to ship them to processors for sale into the Canadian market. This may have something to do with Cooke Aquaculture being d=seriously underwater financially. Reports have it that they are some $350 million in debt at the moment. And the Harper government is known for its willingness to take private industry failures and transfer the risk onto the public's shoulders. It's just that usually they aren't playing with tainted fish.
I mean, does no one in this government remember the Tanted Tuna Scandal of 1985? That too was a true-Blue Conservative scandal.

Tunagate was a 1985 Canadian political scandal involving large quantities of possibly tainted tuna that were sold to the public under order of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, John Fraser.
The story broke on September 17 in the CBC program the fifth estate. Fisheries inspectors had found that StarKist tuna, made by a New Brunswick plant, had spoiled and declared that it was “unfit for human consumption.”^[1]
A Winnipeg, Manitoba plant had processed the tuna, and the forced destruction of a million cans of tuna would likely cause the plant to close down. The owners of the plant thus lobbied fisheries minister Fraser. He decided the tuna should be allowed on store shelves. He later defended himself saying he felt the business owners were right that the inspectors were too severe, or that the inspectors could have made a mistake. He also stated that he had two other independent groups test the tuna, but the lab that did these tests later revealed that their testing was not complete when Fraser made his decision.

WTF is wrong with these guardians of the public trust?  Those who learn nothing from history are condemned to repeat it--and I guess that means the Canadian public is doomed to repeat these same scandals everytime we believe the Conservatives when they say they've changed.

The Frankenfish Rises

Yeah, I know it's just a genetically modified salmon, but Frankenfish is the name it was given and it sure has stuck. And why not? This is a "salmon [that] has been modified by the addition of a growth hormone regulating gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter gene from an ocean pout to the Atlantic's 40,000 genes. These genes enable it to grow year-round instead of only during Spring and Summer. The purpose of the modifications is to increase the speed at which the fish grows, without affecting its ultimate size or other qualities." (Wikipedia)

illustration credit: The Independent

The AquAdvantage salmon (to address it by its proper name) is intended to be raised in on-land fish farms from supplied eggs and is expected to grow at least twice as fast as a normal Atlantic salmon. Of course, that does mean it needs to eat an enormous amount.

The Battle Moves North

from Earth First News

From Locals Supporting Locals:

Monsanto coming to Richmond to try to overturn Council decision

This Tuesday Richmond Council voted unanimously at a general meeting, with the Mayor and all Councillors present, to pass a resolution to make Richmond the eighth GE free crop zone in B.C. The wording of the resolution is on the Richmond Council website, at http://www.richmond.ca/cityhall/council/agendas/gp/2012/052212_minutes.htm

Ten people spoke in favour of the resolution. This now has to go through the formal process of being passed at a Council meeting, which will happen on the 28th May at 7 p.m. at Richmond City Hall.

We've been informed that Crop Life, the Public Relations wing of Monsanto and other biotech companies, will be coming to the Council meeting on the 28th May. They have already begun their lobbying efforts to try and get Richmond Council to change its mind.

If you are in or near Richmond, please turn out for the meeting. Some Councillors may waver under corporate pressure, and a big turn out of the public will make all the difference and hold them firm to their decisions. Several Councillors spoke passionately about their concerns with genetic engineering, and a big public showing will give them more courage.

If Richmond becomes a GE zone this will have a really big impact on other parts of the Province. As a large municipality with about 200 farms and where GE corn is being grown, people will see that if this can be done in Richmond, it can be done anywhere in the Province. GE Free BC is already getting emails from other municipalities where environmental activists want to get a GE Free resolution passed. This is why Monsanto is sending in the PR guys.

At the same time, apparently the BC government is tryining to slide through an Ag Gag law.

Legislation being proposed by the BC's Liberal government will make it illegal and punishable for a person, including citizens or journalists, to disclose information relating to reportable animal disease in the Canadian province. Bill 37, The Animal Health Act, over-rides BC's Freedom of Information Act, making it unlawful for the public or the press to speak publicly about an agriculture-related disease outbreak or identify the location of an outbreak such as the deadly bird flu or a viral outbreak of IHNV at a salmon aquaculture feedlot.

Who would this affect? Anyone. My significant other, author Paula Johanson, recently wrote a book titled Fish: from catch to the table which addressed the safety of farmed fish--this law would have affected her work.

Fake Foods by Paula Johanson

Or the work she did in Fake Foods.Not because anything she said was wrong, but that she said anything at all.

Photo from Living Food FIlms website

 We've seen this sort of thing before, in the Howard Lyman case in Texas:

In April of 1996, Mr. Lyman (former cattle rancher and now President, Voice for a Viable Future)) was invited to appear on Oprah to discuss Mad Cow disease, food production, and the rendering process. He was part of a discussion of experts, including an expert from the beef industry, about food safety in the U.S. This included a discussion of potential health risks from e-colii and mad cow disease (which only weeks before was making headlines in Britain and throughout the world). When Mr. Lyman explained that cows are being fed to cows, Ms. Winfrey seemed to be repulsed by this thought, and exclaimed that it had just stopped her cold from eating another hamburger

Lyman was sued under an Ag Gag law, the Texas Food Disparagement Act, and it took four years and a heap of money to end the lawsuit brought by a Texas beef ranchers organization. Since then, there has been a pause, but these laws are back.