Sofía Baliño, “Fishing with the Stars,” Food & Water Watch Blog, February 2, 2009

This blog post examines a fish diet trend currently sweeping Hollywood, raising questions about the safety and sustainability of certain seafood selections. According to Food & Water Watch, actor Jeremy Piven became “the rumored victim of mercury poisoning” after eating sushi twice daily, while Madonna has pledged to eat more salmon and Angelina Jolie earlier lauded her post-pregnancy diet of organic seafood. “You might remember that, at the time, there were no standards in the U.S. for organic seafood,” opines the blog, which describes
proposed rules put forth by the National Organic Standards Board as “a fraud” and current EU standards as “poorly designed and incompatible with the concept of organic food.”

Food & Water Watch also urges consumers to choose wild salmon over farmed, claiming that “Studies have shown that wild salmon possess lower PCB levels than farmed salmon, as the latter receive feed with greater levels of contamination.” “The PCBs found in farmed salmon can pose a health risk to both adults and children, as can the pesticides and antibiotics used in fish farms,” the author concludes.