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Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has been working behind closed doors with members of the salmon farming industry to develop a standard that would allow net-cage salmon farms in Canada to be certified as “organic.”
The proposed standards cover seaweed, shellfish, and closed containment, but most worrying is that net-cages growing salmon (or any other carnivorous fish) would be granted organic certification with no substantive changes to current practices.
A public comment period to give input on the draft standards was open until August 30, 2010. Over 40 groups from the US and Canada sent in a joint sign on letter and issued a press release objecting to organic standards that allow net pens, antibiotics and chemcials, and the use of much more wild fish as feed than farmed fish produced.
You can still view the proposed Canadian Organic Aquaculture standards on the Canadian General Standards Board website (or go straight to the standards document). In October, a more diverse committee will be reviewing the public comments and compiling a second draft of standards. We'll keep you posted on future opportunities for public comment. In the meantime, learn more about the draft standards below.
» What's wrong with the Proposed Standards?
» Comparison to other Standards
» Solutions
» Take Action
» History
What’s wrong with the Proposed Standards?
The standard does not reflect the basic principles of organics and it would allow organic certification of practices that have been shown through published scientific research to negatively impact wild salmon and marine ecosystems.
Compare the general principles of organic production with the draft aquaculture standards:
General Principle: Protect the environment, minimize marine environment degradation, erosion and water quality degradation, decrease pollution, optimize biological productivity and promote a sound state of health.
The draft Canadian aquaculture standard:
- allows open net-cage production of farmed salmon despite the large body of scientific evidence linking this practice to wild salmon declines, the spread of disease and sea lice, escapes, pollution, and other impacts on the marine environment.
- includes no specific safeguards to reduce net-cage impacts; standards rely on general recommendations to “minimize” impacts which is no different than existing regulations.
- includes no buffers for wild salmon migratory routes as a measure to protect juvenile wild fish.
- allows top-of-the-food-chain fish like salmon that consume much more wild fish in their feed than the amount of farmed fish produced.
General Principle: Recycle materials and resources to the greatest extent possible within the enterprise.
The draft Canadian aquaculture standard:
- has no requirement to recapture farm waste that could be used to produce energy or provide fertilizer for additional food production.
General Principle: Ensure the production environment is free of known and perceived toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers for at least three years prior to certification, and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are not used in production.
The draft Canadian aquaculture standard:
- allows for use of synthetic paraciticides, such as SLICE which is classified as "very toxic to marine organisms", to combat sea lice infestation on certified organic farms.
- has no measure to determine the level of toxins and pollutants that may be contained in farmed fish derived from wild fish in their feed, or from the open ocean where effluent from other industries is disposed of.
- does not recognize that alternative feeds and closed containment systems can successfully reduce toxins in feed and reduce the use of chemical treatments.
General Principle: Prohibits the use of antibiotics in the production of meats sold as certified organic.
The draft Canadian aquaculture standard:
- allows for the use of antibiotics in the production of farmed fish sold as organic.
- does not require closed containment production which may prevent the need for antibiotics.
General Principle: Utilizes renewable resources in locally organized production systems.
The draft Canadian aquaculture standard:
- calls for all feed to be derived from organic or sustainable sources unless not commercially available in which case up to 30% of feed can come from non-organic, unsustainable sources.
- allows “organic certified” fish to use substantially more wild fish in feed than farmed fish produced, a use of marine resources that results in a net-loss of marine protein because there is no limit on the amount of feed that can be composed of wild fishmeal and oil if the source meets an unenforcable "sustainability" standard.
Note: these principles are based on land-based agriculture. The standard now being put forth is based on agriculture principles because marine-based principles do not exist.
Such weak standards threaten the integrity of the organic label and negate others’ efforts to produce truly organic products. This standard violates the very principles of what an organics label should mean, and expose the Canadian government’s irresponsible management and promotion of net-cage aquaculture.
Net-cages and top-of-the-food-chain farmed fish have no place in organic aquaculture standards. The Canadian standard needs to reflect practices that address the well-researched impacts of aquaculture to support the producers that are working to implement innovations that can deliver truly sustainable products.
Standards that allow business-as-usual salmon farming to slap on an organic label are unacceptable.
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Comparison to other Standards
The US standard was recommended by the National Organic Standards Board, but the necessary regulatory amendments are still pending. Thanks to outstanding support from the public, conservation organizations, and consumer advocacy groups, the US standard has much more stringent requirements such as:
- Net-cages will not be allowed where they could impact the reproduction or migratory routes of wild fish or other marine life.
- The use of wild fish in feed will be limited to trimmings and waste from environmentally responsible fisheries. The ratio of fish in feed to farmed fish produced cannot be greater than 1:1 with continual reductions over time.
- Only indigenous species of local genotype can be used in net-cage production due to the inability to eliminate the risk of escapes.
- 50% of waste nutrients (nitrogen & phosphorous) must be re-captured from net-cages.
- No antibiotics or chemical parasiticides can be used.
Organic certification of net-cage farmed salmon has been controversial internationally. In the United Kingdom, the Soil Association chose to permanently certify farmed salmon using standards that still allowed the problems of net-cages to persist. In response the chairman, Lawrence Woodward, resigned from his position stating:
"Salmon farming in cages has nothing at all to do with organic principles. It is very regrettable that the Soil Association has gone down this line of trying to certify something that is so distant from the principles." Source
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Solutions
Rather than compromising organic standards to fit the needs of salmon farming, the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) is working to improve the sustainability of the industry as a whole by fostering a transition from open net-cages to closed containment systems.
Closed containment technology would minimize if not entirely eliminate many of the environmental problems associated with open net-cage fish farms such as escapes, spread of sea lice, and interactions with marine predators that organic aquaculture standards cannot adequately address.
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Take Action
The Canadian General Standards Board public comment period on the draft organic aquacutlure standards ended on August 30, 2010.
Over 40 groups from the US and Canada sent in a joint sign on letter and a press release objecting to organic standards that allow net pens, antibiotics and chemcials, and the use of much more wild fish as feed than farmed fish produced. Many more individual comments were sent in. Thanks to those of you who submitted a comment to this process.
All comments will now be reviewed by the review committee and a second draft will be released in the coming months. CAAR will continue to monitor this issue and keep you informed of further action to take.
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History
In 2007, 19 organizations signed on to a request to the Certified Organic Association of BC (COABC) asking them to commit to subjecting revised organic aquaculture standards to a full public review process if they choose to proceed with development. Read CAAR’s Joint letter to the COABC (pdf).
Read CAAR's comments to the Board (pdf) on November 3, 2008.
Download the CAAR factsheet on Organic Farmed Salmon? (pdf)
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