Organic farmed salmon...thoughts

[Josh]

Wondered what you thought of organic farmed fish as a food source...advantages - a bit cheaper here than wild fish, fairly easily available so would make a good meal on the go.

http://www.purelyorganic.org.uk/page19.html - this link would have it that it's free of pesticides, chemicals etc.

However, some sources state potential problems from overcrowding although I could not find any specifics.

[lex_rooker]

We have a lot of "Organic" fish farms here in the USA.  I've toured several and all of them use a pestecide free, all natural fish food that comes in 50 lbs sacks.  I read the ingredients and it contains: rice flour, wheat gluten, rice hulls, soymeal, chicken byproducts, etc etc etc.  All this stuff may be "organic" but it sure isn't natural food for the fish.  Also, just like grains mess up the fatty acid profile of beef, it does a number on the Omega 3 fatty acids in the fish as well.

Long ago I decided to stay away from "farmed" fish regardless of how organic they were.

Lex

[goodsamaritan]

I don't buy ANY farmed fish.
Only WILD ocean fish for me and my family.

[Raw Kyle]

When it comes to buying animals for food the listing "organic" doesn't mean much. For fruits and veggies it's a decent guarantee there won't be any or as much toxic chemicals sprayed on them for whatever reason, but with animals it's no guarantee they aren't being fed junk and being raised in a very unhealthy environment. I remember at the AV lecture I went to he said he only ever found one good fish farm and I believe he said it was in the Netherlands. They were feeding the fish real food, everywhere else he ever saw they feed them all kinds of junk and almost always also feed them dye to make their flesh look the right color after it doesn't because of the unhealthy diet. Organic dye is of course still dye and not something I want to be eating.

[Josh]

Thanks....guess you really have to do your homework about where it comes from.

[TylerDurden]

Farmed shellfish, I've heard, is supposed to be better than farmed fish. This is partly because some shellfish like oysters simply sift food-particles from the water so that they can be farmed anywhere without needing to feed them on unnatural foods. That said, all the farmed shellfish I've bought in the past didn't compare, tastewise, to wildcaught shellfish.

[donrad]

I agree with Lex. In my area wild salmon is less expensive than the farm raised. Kansas, USA.