Wild about salmon?

Thousands of escapees from the cages interbreed with wild salmon and are thought to disrupt natural breeding patterns and behaviour. Like all factory-farmed livestock, salmon are forced to behave in a completely unnatural way. They live out their lives crowded in cages sunk into lochs or the sea with no opportunity to express their natural desire to go from salt water to fresh water to breed.

The seabed under the cages dies as it rapidly becomes polluted with effluent. The fish are covered in sea-lice as they have no opportunity to flush them off by migrating upstream into freshwater rivers to spawn, so the cages are regularly flooded with pesticides. In addition, they need to ingest possibly toxic dyes to create that desirable pink that wild salmon get from the crustaceans they eat. Dense stocking leads to infections, and the fish are vaccinated or dosed regularly with preventative antibiotics.

Organically farmed salmon
But farmed salmon is not all bad news. Last Christmas, for the first time, organically farmed salmon came on to the market. Produced under strict guidelines from the Soil Association and other regulatory bodies, organically farmed salmon is a halfway house between wild and farmed fish. It’s reared like organic livestock – with regard for its welfare and without artificial additives. Farms are carefully inspected for environmental impact and the fish for eating quality. Pesticides and routine antibiotics are banned, and the salmon can express themselves more naturally than in conventional fish farming.

Larger pens are placed further out to sea, where fewer fish have to swim in stronger tides, which also wash away the waste products. Small fish called wrasse are introduced to nibble the lice off the salmon. Artificial dyes are not allowed, and the feed is chosen to reflect a much more natural diet without any GMOs.

The flesh of organically farmed salmon is sometimes paler in colour and the cost higher, but the texture and taste can be much more satisfactory, and you do know you are not getting toxic residues.

Salmon is a source of long-chain fatty acids, which have proven health benefits – notably to the heart and to babies’ growing brains – it makes sense to choose an unpolluted source for these vital nutrients. Organically farmed salmon is expensive, but then again, what’s wrong with enjoying a bit of real luxury at Christmas or other special occasions?