Organic Standards Board OKs Feeding Wild Fish to “Organic” Farmed Fish

Food activist Marion Nestle reports in her “What to Eat” blog that the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board has approved a rule to allow “farmed carnivorous fish to eat meal and oil derived from sustainably wild-caught fish.” The board’s decision means that wild fish cannot be classified as organic, but farm-raised fish can be considered organic even if they eat fish meal made with wild fish. Citing Food Chemical News, Nestle notes that the board also approved the use of open net pens in organic aquaculture with restrictions to prevent
farmed fish from escaping and the recycling of nutrients. “Net pens would only be allowed in specified areas to avoid lice contamination.”

Consumers Union reportedly criticized the proposal at a press conference held before the board meeting at which the vote was taken, focusing on the use of “net cages,” which purportedly allow waste and disease from fish farms to enter the ecosystem, and allowing wild fish, which can carry toxins like PCBs, to be used in feed for “organic” fish. Supporters of the rule reportedly argue that it is a “very rigorous standard that will be very difficult for [fish] farmers to meet,” and that toxins can be filtered out during the production of fish meal. See Chicago Tribune, November 15, 2008; whattoeatbook.com, November 20, 2008.