FARMED SALMON SUSPECT

There’s lots of money to be made selling farmed salmon to the world. Just look at the money Cooke Aquaculture just shelled out to purchase Tassal of Australia: $1.5 billion Canadian pesos. Makes you wonder who and why humans are eating these questionable products.

Farmed fish are raised in cages in coastal waters that become polluted by feces, pesticides and food waste. Some farms in Nova Scotia waters have between 750,000 and one million salmon swimming in circles in a small area. Many become ill with infectious salmon anemia (ISA). However, they still make it to market with the blessing of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Governments around the world, including Canada’s, are currently making decisions to ban ocean-based salmon/trout farming in coastal waters.

However, with the world’s population hitting eight billion, I guess a lot of opportunities exist to sell this product to the unaware. Nova Scotia is not exempt as the government and private nursing homes provide farmed salmon to inmates, hospital and long-termcare patients. At $5.99 a pound for grade “A” farmed salmon, you can see why it is a popular menu item.

The time has come for residents of Nova Scotia and beyond to avoid ocean-farmed salmon/trout. It is time for the Houston government to remove this item from hospitals and the penal community.

Let’s stand on the side of healthy food products.

Eat healthy, avoid ocean-farmed salmon and trout in your diet.

Darrell Tingley, Timberlea