Fish farms may go organic

But there’s little ‘organic’ about industrially farmed fish

By Culinate staff

November 24, 2008

This week is turkey week, but last week fish was on the minds of the folks at the National Organic Standards Board. Under deliberation: whether to allow farmed fish to be certified as organic. As the Oregonian reported, the board approved organic certification for farmed fish under certain conditions. “As if there is something wholesome and natural about raising millions of fish in polluting net pens, and sweeping the seas of menhaden, mackerel, and other small fish to feed them,” groused the newspaper. Mark Bittman chimed in last week, too, with his condemnatory overview of the global fishing industry. “If the world’s wealthier fish-eaters began to appreciate wild sardines, anchovies, herring, and the like, we would be less inclined to feed them to salmon raised in fish farms,” wrote Bittman.