Conscious Choice Seattle: In the Moment with New Look

July 2006 | Letters to the Editor

In the Moment with New Look

Hello Editor,

I wanted to send this off while I was in the moment.

This magazine title choice is excellent. I was walking down the street, saw it, continued walking past it for half a step until the title sunk in my brain. I immediately turned and picked up a copy from the newsstand. I am so glad that I did.

Did you infuse this issue with some magical zap?

Because upon reaching home and within moments of opening it I had a feeling of information being imparted that was of relevance. Articles, advertising, etc. I suddenly found myself looking skyward, thrusting my hands into the air with this incredible sense of “YES".

You and your magazine have a chance to reach many people. Good luck.
Thanks,

Lance Campbell, Seattle

Doubting Eco-Value of Farmed Salmon
Dear Editor.

I was surprised and dismayed by Patrick Moore’s (Conscious Comment, May 2006) suggestion that eating farmed salmon has ecological and health benefits. This could not be further from the truth. Salmon farming has numerous deleterious social, economic, and environmental impacts.

In many coastal communities family-wage fishing and shore jobs have been replaced by low-paying jobs with multinational salmon farming companies, or have diappeared altogether. In British Columbia sea lice outbreaks linked to salmon farms have decimated some wild salmon runs.

Escaped farmed Atlantic salmon, which obviously are not native to Pacific rivers, have been found in at least 81 B.C. rivers. It has been estimated that the waste generated by salmon farms in B.C. is equivalent in volume to the sewage of a city of a half-million people.

Moore states that farming salmon “takes the pressure off wild fish stocks.” This is not the case. It takes three to five pounds of wild fish to produce enough salmon feed to grow one pound of salmon. This is a net loss of protein and as the market for farmed salmon increases, so will the demand for wild fish to produce more feed.

Moore’s “debunking” of the issue of PCBs in farmed salmon is also not accurate. In the study he is referencing, farmed salmon samples had ten times more PCBs than wild salmon. He is correct that the study found that PCBs in farmed salmon were below FDA guidelines. However, these standards are controversial. EPA guidelines are 40 times more restrictive and the study’s authors suggested that the FDA guidelines are outdated.

There are numerous other negative impacts from salmon farming. Visit www.farmedanddangerous.org for more information.

Sincerely,
Seth Amrhein

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