Something's Fishy
Down on the Farm
Laura Silver
/ Friday, August 22nd,
2008.
Special to the Valley
News
Issue 34, Volume 12.
I’d like to be a
vegetarian, but the times I tried led to significant health problems. My
current compromise is not eating beef or pork, limiting poultry and fish to a
few meals a week and buying organic or hormone/antibiotic-free whenever I can.
Fish, of course,
doesn’t come “organic,” since its food source and environment cannot be
controlled in the same way poultry’s can. Wild-caught species are often
over-fished with ecological consequences and also contain mercury and other
environmental pollutants. Farm-raised fish are apparently even scarier – with a
host of issues added to the mercury debate.
As far as mercury
goes, I wish I could trust the FDA – which only warns about danger to children
and pregnant/nursing women – but history supports neither their impartiality
nor their accuracy. Since the adverse health effects of mercury are pretty
heinous – and not necessarily reversible – I prefer to err on the side of
caution.
Diet-wise I choose
fish lower in mercury more often and limit or eliminate those with higher
levels. Environmentally, I try to stick with the species that set off the
fewest alarms in my head. (Though on that basis I should eat oysters, which are
actually benefiting the environment through farming, but I’m with Miss Piggy on
this one: “I don’t know why anyone would want to eat something slimy that sits
in an ashtray.”)
So what exactly are
the “host of other” concerns about farmed fish? They include what the fish are
fed; pollution in the raising environment; parasites, illnesses and the chemicals/antibiotics
farmers administer to prevent them; sustainability of the practice as a whole;
and humane treatment and slaughter issues.
Barring filter
feeders, such as oysters, which consume plankton and algae, most species of
farmed fish are carnivorous. They have to be fed a diet that includes other
fish. The feeder fish are usually “trash” or bait fish caught (and often
over-fished) in the wild, then processed into pellets with other ingredients.
So whether raised in inland pools or ocean pens, farmed fish still consume
mercury and environmental pollutants in their fishy kibble.
The other components
of the kibble are often low in quality and high in fats, which accumulate
fat-soluble pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls. Poor quality food
keeps farmed fish from forming the high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids that are
fish’s main health benefit.
Farmed fish are
“inefficient” eaters, meaning their natural adaptations for catching and eating
other fish do not prepare them to consume kibbles and bits. They are raised in
pools or ocean pens in stressful, extremely crowded conditions, often swimming
in a combination of their own waste and the fish kibble they fail to eat. When
this effluent is flushed, it’s often directly into the wild environment,
polluting that as well.
These conditions can
lead to a high incidence of parasites, illness, and premature death. To try to
prevent sickness, farmers often administer antibiotics or use chemicals – which
end up in our diet as well. If any of the fish escape, they can carry disease
and parasites into wild populations.
The primary means of
slaughter is to pull the fish from the water and let them suffocate. This,
along with the stressful, overcrowded and polluted living conditions,
understandably raises concerns about humane treatment.
Some aquaculture
producers have always tried to be sustainable and humane, but the fish-farming
industry as a whole has had to become more sensitive to all these issues – in
the interest of profit if nothing else.
Improvements are
being made, with humane treatment and sustainability high on the list. But
changes are in the early stages, so it pays to do a little research and choose
the fish types and sources that best address your health and environmental
concerns.
The Environmental
Defense Fund (EDF) has an easy-to-follow Seafood Selector that combines
information on health and ecological issues for both wild-caught and farmed
fish (though they do not address humane-treatment in fishing or farming).
For those who prefer
to get their Omega-3s in supplements, the EDF lists which manufacturers remove
toxins and mercury from their fish oils.
I’m not ready to give
up fish altogether, so I try to make choices that offer health benefits to me,
to the fish and to the environment. I just wish there were more options that
did all three.
Laura Silver works as
a Web designer and freelance writer from her off-the-grid straw bale home in
Jamul. She is a lifelong “practical” environmentalist with a particular
interest in green building and healthy home issues. She can by reached by
e-mail at laura@strawbalediary.com.
Resources
• Environmental
Defense Fund (use the “Seafood Selector” link on the left):
www.edf.org/home.cfm
• “Sustainable Fish
That’s Safe to Eat”: www.ewg.org/node/26940
• Advocacy for
Animals, “The Pros and Cons of Fish
Farming”:http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy
• FDA advisory for
children and pregnant/nursing mothers: www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg3.html
• FDA mercury levels
in fish by species: www.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/sea-mehg.html
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