Enough of the scary salmon tales
Grant Warkentin, The Chilliwack Times, April 2, 2013
Our farmers are tired of being accused of cover-ups, denials and lies. We have gone above and beyond most other food producers in Canada when it comes to how much information we provide to the public, how open we are about our operations and how hard we work to have civil conversations with our critics.
We are proud of our farmed salmon, which are healthy, nutritious, safe and have a very small environmental footprint. We are proud of our farmers, who work in some of the worst weather imaginable to take care of our fish, and who spend their days off making the coastal communities where they live better places for everyone.
Yet people like Eddie Gardner continue to throw false accusations at them and tell scary fairy tales about salmon farms.
As far as I know, Eddie has never made any attempt to come see a salmon farm for himself, or come talk with our farmers. How can he claim to speak with such authority about things he's never seen, and pass such damning judgment on people he's never met? It's cynical and hypocritical, and shows Eddie is not really interested in presenting people with the full picture, but in selling his view of the world to bolster his status as a minor local celebrity.
If people want to believe the silly conspiracy theories and junk science Eddie parrots, that's their right. But if people want to have a civil conversation, ask us questions and see how salmon farms actually operate, we are always eager to talk.
I hope people in Chilliwack, which is a true-blooded farming community, make more of an effort to learn about salmon farming and actually talk to salmon farmers, rather than listen to scary salmon tales.
Grant Warkentin Mainstream Canada communications officer
Grant's letter is in response to the following:
Why Chilliwack has a chapter of the Salmon Feedlot Boycott
The Chilliwack Times March 28, 2013
I am often asked, "Eddie what's the big deal with farmed Atlantic salmon and why are you promoting a boycott of farmed salmon here in Chilliwack?"
The answer is simple: the Norwegian Aquaculture industry, better known as the "aquavirus industry," must be exposed. Just watch Salmon Confidential, a shocking exposure of how the Norwegian Aquaculture industry (Cermaq, Marine Harvest and Grieg's), with full support of federal and provincial governments, has damaged the ocean ecosystem and threatens the very survival of Fraser River sockeye salmon. It is a story of pollution, transference of sea lice and importation of deadly European salmon viruses. It is a story of cover-ups, denials and lies.
Here in BC, tons of non-native Atlantic farmed salmon are trapped and grown in feedlots of open net cages. The feedlot salmon are fed food pellets laced with antibiotics to fight a losing battle with mutating European viruses. What goes in must come out. Through the force of gravity, huge amounts of feces settle to the ocean floor beneath and in addition, uneaten pellets are added to this. Atlantic-farmed salmon, with little room to move around are much fatter than wild salmon and absorb large amounts of PCBs that are bad for your health.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Canada's East Coast recently gave the green light for farmed salmon with the European Infectious Salmon Anemia virus to be sold in Canadian supermarkets. The CFIA's argument is that it does not harm humans, but can spread to wild fish and kill them. How ethical is that? This is all pretty new, and I am not as confident as the CFIA that it is a good thing to send sick, drugged fish with the mutating virus to our supermarkets and say it is safe for human consumption.
The DFO is in a conflict of interest, having the constitutional responsibility to protect the Oceans and Wild Fisheries as well as the adopted mandate to promote, and financially support Norwegian-owned companies to operate fish farms on the coastal waters. It is a conflict of interest of great concern as expressed by Justice Bruce Cohen because the fish farms have great potential to do irreversible harm to Fraser River sockeye salmon along its migration routes along the coastal waters. This is why people in BC are asking the province to exercise the precautionary principle, and use its jurisdiction and authority to revoke fish farm leases and have them removed. The Christy Clark government is unwilling to do this.
Since federal and provincial governments have clearly abdicated their responsibility to exercise the precautionary principle to remove the open net feedlots, consumers are using their own precautions by not buying Atlantic farmed salmon.
Here in Chilliwack, we are lucky because the following places will not have Atlantic farmed salmon on their shelves or menus: BC's own Save On Foods, Coopers, Price Smart Foods, as well as Jackson's Steak and Grill House and Bravo Restaurant and Lounge. We expect more to follow this kind of environmental concern and leadership. The Chilliwack Chapter of the National Salmon Feedlot Boycott will continue to educate consumers so they can strategically support Fraser River Sockeye salmon. Boycott Atlantic farmed salmon wherever it is sold! Remember: Vote Wild Salmon in the spring provincial election! Together, we can save wild salmon!
