The issue of organic seafood needs to be framed in the context of the
current government mind set and regulations for organic products, as well as
consumer expectations. In the US, the government specifically states that the
organic regulations having nothing to do with product quality and safety, and that
the label is a marketing tool. The organic regs are prescriptive in varying
degrees in the methods, inputs, and ingredients that can be used in order to
qualify for the USDA organic seal. There are product quality specifications
and no means for validating or invalidating methods, inputs, and ingredients
based on product quality parameters. For many organic consumers, on the other
hand, organics is about product quality and safety, ethical treatment of
animals, and / or sustainability.
Trying to create organic seafood regs given this minefield of real and
perceived organic benefits, requirements for the absence of certain substances and
no requirement for the presence of certain product attributes, and emphasis
on methods of production will prove to be a challenge. Wild caught fish will
face the hurdle that the current regs for organics focus on prescribing
production / farming inputs and methods. There are no controllable or definable
production methods for the production of wild caught fish. There are no
definable farm boundaries and to some extent controls that can be exercised on
terrestrial farm inputs and environment (although one could argue that a
terrestrial farm can never be a closed system and is still impacted by past sins to
the soil, and air and water quality issues beyond the control of the farm).
There are those that would argue that some wild caught fish are sourced from
"pristine" environments, although this would be difficulty to quantify and
measure, let alone control. One good oil or chemical spill and the aquatic
environment changes for some period of time (of course one good drift of pesticide
spraying from an adjacent non-organic crop farm would have interesting
consequences).
There are those who would argue that certifying wild caught fish as organic
should be based on product quality and purity (fish grown as nature intended).
This criteria more closely parallels the issue of certifying wild crafted
terrestrial products like wild mushrooms. As mentioned above, the organic
standards are not focused on product quality per se and there are no metrics for
certifying a product as organic based on quality.
The issue of farm raised fish intersects with several issues and prejudices.
The bias against farm raised fish for reasons of product quality and safety,
resource sustainability, environmental impact, etc. is equally applicable to
terrestrial animal rearing. If there were wild caught and farm raised
chickens there might also be similar media exposes and consumer backlash. If it is
possible to define rearing methods for growing organic terrestrial livestock,
the same rationale should be possible for aquatic livestock. Choosing the
cultivation method or rearing environment (land based versus sea or lake based)
may conflict with the intent of the current organic regs on being able to
"control" the inputs and rearing methods.Some would argue that land based fish
farms would be closer to terrestrial farms and that fish farming in open
waters would conflict with controlling the rearing environment..
The issue of choosing the species to cultivate and the impact on resource
sustainability (harvesting fish to feed fish) is more of a consumer issue. I do
not believe that the current organic regs have metrics for defining
sustainability and explicit guidelines for achieving sustainability. However, organic
consumers will likely weigh in with their dollars in deciding whether an
herbivorous farm raised fish more closely matches their expectations than a
carnivorous farm raised fish.
The bottom line is that as long as organic regs are about production method
and not product quality, it will be difficult to add wild caught fish on the
organic list. As long as terrestrial livestock can be approved as organic,
there is no reason why similar criteria cannot be developed for aquatic
livestock.
Alan Ismond, P.Eng.
Aqua-Terra Consultants
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 01 2006 - 12:53:11 PST