The public interest group Food & Water Watch has urged consumers to contact the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to oppose the use of the “USDA Organic” label for farmed fish. Food & Water Watch has accused industrial fish farmers of attempting to “greenwash” aquaculture practices that, according to the group, disrupt ocean ecosystems “by wiping out the fish on the bottom of the food chain” and increase “the amount of dangerous pollutants like mercury and PCBs” that wind up in farmed fish products. The organization warns consumers that feeding wild fish to farm-bred fish in deep-water open pens is not “consistent with [the] organic principles that you have come to trust and that require minimal impact on the environment, control of input and outputs, and animals to be raised on organically-raised feed.” Food & Water Watch recently initiated several action calls to counteract the final directives of the Bush…
Tag Archives fish/seafood
The New York Times Magazine featured several prominent food writers in its October 12, 2008, food issue, which covered topics ranging from agricultural production to marketing strategies. Author Michael Pollan penned an open letter, titled “Farmer in Chief,” addressing the numerous food security challenges facing the next U.S. president. Pollan tells the president-elect that even as he copes with rising food prices and decreasing production, he must also “make reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change.” Going on to explain the complexities of modern agriculture and its dependence on oil, Pollan recommends that the administration adopt one core idea: “we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a…
The U.S. Supreme Court has reportedly asked the solicitor general to file a brief discussing the federal preemption issues in case filed against retailers for failing to inform California consumers that the farm-raised salmon they sold was artificially colored. Albertson’s, Inc. v. Kanter, No. 07-1327 (U.S.). FDA regulations allow salmon farmers to augment the normally grayish pigment of farm-raised fish with chemicals that turn the flesh pink like that of wild salmon. Federal law also requires that the use of coloring be indicated on product labels, but does not allow individuals to enforce the law through litigation. The plaintiffs filed several lawsuits in state court alleging that the grocery stores violated federal and state food and drug labeling laws by failing to provide this information to consumers. A trial court and intermediate appellate court found that federal law preempted the claims, but the California Supreme Court ruled in plaintiffs’ favor. Further…
