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Secret Ingredients: Farm Raised Salmon
Guest Chef: Heather Ramsdell, Creative Coordinator of the Northeast Region
We work closely with independent farmers who follow our strict quality standards for farm-raised salmon. Those standards prohibit antibiotics, hormones and certain other substances and practices. They help protect marine ecosystems and bring naturally healthy salmon to your plate.
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The New York Times claims that nearly all farm raised salmon is produced using emamectin benzoate and other pesticided, to control sea lice. They also claim that farm raised salmon is low in omega-3 fatty acids. (Sardines With Your Bagel?, By TARAS GRESCOE, NYT, June 9, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/opinion/09grescoe.html)
Can you please explain if Whole Catch salmon is produced with this or any other pesticide, and if Whole Catch farm raised salmon has lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids than wild salmon?
Thank you.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
@sk Hi, Winnie from Whole Foods here. I spoke with our private label manager for Whole Catch and just so you know our Whole Catch Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Fillets are wild and are not produced with pesticides of any kind. I hope this answers your question – please let me know if you have any other concerns!
June 12th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
i have a question– i think everyone know that wild salmon has less PCB’s then farm raised salmon. Are you saying that Whole Catch wild sockeye salmon is not farm raised? It’s caught by fisherman using lines and nets?
Because it clearly says on the package “….the fish has been harvested from sustainable, well managed fisheries”. I’d like a clear answer on the topic, because i’m not sure i understand how a wild caught fish is harvested from a fishery.
Can you say, unequivocally that these fish are not at all farm raised?
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
@steven: Thanks for sending in your question — I’m sure other people must be confused by this too. Here’s the deal: if the package says that it is wild, then the fish is wild-caught and not farm-raised. The confusion on this probably comes from the use of the word “harvested.” While lots of people use the word “harvested” when talking about wild fish, including fishery managers, it is more of a farming word and can cause confusion. Further, a “fishery” does not refer to a fish farm. Instead a fishery (plural: fisheries) is an all-encompassing term that includes the following: the area in which the wild species is caught, the people who are catching them, and the method of fishing gear that’s used to catch the fish. In addition, it also includes the way the fishery is managed, or regulated. Sustainable, well-managed fisheries are those that have catch limits and use other management tools (such as closed areas or closed seasons) to prevent catching too many fish (overfishing). Sustainable fisheries also use fishing gear that doesn’t damage the ecosystem or populations of other species (e.g. sea turtles, marine mammals, or other species of fish). Hope this helps!
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm