Farmed and Dangerous urges action against proposed Canadian organic salmon standards
“Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has been working behind closed doors with members of the salmon farming industry to develop a standard that would allow net-cage salmon farms in Canada to be certified as “organic” – so says the Farmed And Dangerous website, and it urges visitors to take action.
The proposed standards cover seaweed, shellfish, and closed containment, but it says, most worrying is that net-cages growing salmon (or any other carnivorous fish) would be granted organic certification with no substantive changes to current practices.
The website goes on to state that a public comment period to give input on the draft standards was open until August 30, 2010. Over 40 groups from the US and Canada sent in a joint sign on letter and issued a press release objecting to organic standards that allow net pens, antibiotics and chemicals, and the use of much more wild fish as feed than farmed fish produced.
View the proposed Canadian Organic Aquaculture standards on the Canadian General Standards Board website (or go straight to the standards document). In October, a more diverse committee will be reviewing the public comments and compiling a second draft of standards.
[The list of signatories will come as no surprise – and include many of the same names reported in our article Action groups rally to protest potential approval of GM salmon; AquaBounty calls claims inaccurate, deliberately misleading, and intended to create fear and misunderstanding – Ed]
