David,

Should fish be allowed to be “organic” if they are farmed in the ocean where it’s absolutely impossible to control or monitor the wide range of substances—including toxic pollutants—that flow into and out of the fish farms?

If the US Department of Agriculture goes forward with its “organic aquaculture” regulations as planned that’s exactly what will happen. 

Center for Food Safety’s new report, Like Water and Oil: Ocean-Based Fish Farming and Organic Don’t Mix [1] outlines exactly why these kinds of fish farms can never be organic. But despite all of the well-documented problems associated with ocean-based fish farming, the USDA is poised to allow open-ocean fish farms to be certified as organic. 

Tell USDA that open-ocean fish farms should never be certified as organic!

It’s mind-boggling that USDA would seriously consider allowing fish farms at sea to be organic. Permitting “organic” ocean-based aquaculture would put the entire U.S. organic industry in jeopardy by weakening the integrity of the USDA organic label.

The plan would also allow wild-caught fish and their by-products—fish meal and fish oil—to be used in feed. This flies in the face of organic’s foundational requirement that all animals are fed a 100% organic diet. Worse, feeding farmed fish wild-caught fish and by-products would increase pressure on already over-exploited and recovering fisheries. It would also decrease the food supply of a wide range of native species, again going against organic’s biological diversity conservation requirements. 

USDA has not ruled out allowing ocean-based farming of migratory fish like salmon to be certified as organic, even though confining these fish would inhibit their biological need to swim far distances. Inhibiting fish’s natural behavior goes against the very principles of organic production.
 
All organic production systems must adhere to the principles of organic. Ocean-based aquaculture facilities simply cannot meet these minimum requirements, and therefore can never be considered organic.

Center for Food Safety will deliver your message to the Secretary of Agriculture along with a copy of our ground-breaking report.
 
Sign the petition urging USDA to reject ocean-based fish farming as “organic” now >>>

Thanks for everything you do,
Center for Food Safety

-------------------------------
1. Like Water and Oil: Ocean-Based Fish Farming and Organic Don’t Mix

  
 
         
 

Contact Us

CFS welcomes your questions and comments. Please contact us at office@centerforfoodsafety.org, or at one of our offices.

  

National Headquarters
660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, #302
Washington, DC 20003
phone (202) 547-9359 | fax(202) 547-9429

www.centerforfoodsafety.org

  
         
You are subscribed to this list as foodconsumer.org@gmail.com. You can manage your subscription information here, or  unsubscribe here.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This material is protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission or proper citation. Please credit any and all use of our work product to: Center for Food Safety, www.centerforfoodsafety.org.