At the moment, there is no federal standard for labeling fish as "organic." While cows, pigs, chickens and all sorts of other animals can easily meet existing standards by being fed specific types of food and not getting any hormones or antibiotics added to them, fish are much harder to pin down. Part of the problem lies in the fact that many fish are carnivorous and because there are currently no organic fish, they cannot eat organic feed. Additionally, to ensure that fish are only eating organically, which is not a problem for herbivorous fish, they must be supervised and receive specific feed. If fish have to be supervised to get the "organic" designation, that means that wild fish will not qualify, which is a sticking point for those who actually fish wild fish.
Scientists and environmentalists, however, agree that the organic label should not be applied to wild fish, reminding people that "organic" refers to a type of agriculture and the catching of wild fish is not agriculture.
The debate on both sides has been ongoing for years now and, even when a consensus is reached, it will probably take a couple more years for fisheries to meet the chosen USDA standards and get their products in the market.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-29-2006 @ 8:03AM
Steve said...
"While cows, pigs, chickens and all sorts of other animals can easily meet existing standards by [...] not getting any hormones or antibiotics added to them [...]"
Huh? That's illegal here whether organic or not. I sure hope there's more to "organic" in the US than the type of food and the lack of added hormones.
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12-01-2006 @ 1:37PM
Momstone said...
I am constantly struggling to find "organic" seafood. While many companies claim "all natural," farm raised, you can never be sure what they are fed or the water quality because there is no oversite as you pointed out. One of the few companies I have been bying from is Ecofish http://www.ecofish.com/index.htm
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12-01-2006 @ 5:03PM
Mike said...
The problem isn't that it's hard to define organic, it's that "organic" is more a marketing tool than an indicator of quality.
Organic chickens or cattle can still be crammed into feeding pens, fed nothing but corn (unnatural for beef )and called organic. Why are they more expensive than conventional if they aren't paying for the antibiotics? Because they can easily get sick in those close quarters if they are denied antibiotics. For many companies the organic solution is to eliminate the antibiotics, not to change the conditions that made them necessary.
If we're going to label everything how about labels for chicken like "Never saw sunshine it's entire life" or beef "Hasn't seen, walked on, smelled or tasted grass for over a year" These labels could be applied to much of the "organic" chicken and beef out there.
A wild, line caught tuna caught in the sea eating whatever it wanted to can't be called organic since there wasn't a farmer there feeding it. What's nuts is that's considered a problem!
The same people who mindlessly will search out for the magic word "organic" are probably the same ones who get excited about "fat free" or "sugar free" printed on packages of food that never include fat or sugar.
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