Food & Water Watch
In 2010, the CEO of the American Soy Association reported that the organization has been closely monitoring progress in the development of offshore fish farming legislation and meeting with congressional staff on the topic. In March 2011, it endorsed a controversial plan that would allow such fish farming or “aquaculture” in the Gulf of Mexico. In September 2011, a press release was issued announcing a new marine fish farm project that would “revolutionize sustainable agriculture.” The source of the release? The Illinois Soybean Association.
Why are trade associations for an agricultural commodity that is grown on land involved in policies and marketing that affect the use and stewardship of our oceans?
Seafood is one of our last wild food sources. Fish are a vital part of many people’s diets because of potential health benefits, fresh taste and the connection that fish give us to our oceans and coasts. Around half of the world’s seafood, however, now comes from farms rather than from the wild. In some of these farms, fish are grown in crowded, polluting cages and may be fattened on commercially prepared diets.
Feed has been one of the aquaculture industry’s greatest challenges. Many of the species grown by the ocean finfish industry are highly valued carnivorous fish, which have typically been fed diets consisting of fishmeal and oil made from smaller, wild fish. The excessive use of wild fish to grow farmed fish can make aquaculture inefficient. Further, aquaculture has been accused of spurring the depletion of these small fish, which is problematic not only for their own populations, but also to the other animals that rely on them for food.
With little public scrutiny, soy has been hailed by some as a sustainable alternative to feed based on wild fish, thus supposedly solving some of the fish farming industry’s sustainability problems.
In this report, the first to address the relationship between the soy and factory fish farming industries, Food & Water Watch reveals that, while the soy industry stands to make large profits from the expansion of factory fish farming, there is no guarantee that soy-based aquaculture feed can consistently produce healthy fish or promote ecological responsibility. In fact, by causing fish to produce excess waste, soy could lead to an even more polluting fish farming industry.
By supporting factory fish farming, the soy industry could not only help to expand an industry that degrades marine environments, threatens wild fish populations and damages coastal communities, it could also extend its own negative impacts. Already, industrial soy production has led to the prevalence of genetically modified crops on U .S. farmland and in consumer food-products, caused massive deforestation in South America and displaced indigenous communities living in areas now used to grow soy.
Rather than actually promoting sustainability in a developing industry, the involvement of soy associations in aquaculture could spur the growth of two industries that have extremely negative impacts on our land, our oceans and the communities that depend on them.
To read the full report—Factory-Fed Fish: How the Soy Industry Is Expanding into the Sea—click here.
Visit EcoWatch’s FACTORY FARMING, SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE and GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM pages for more related news on these topics.
Another problem I have read about when salmon farmers use soy in their feed, is that the farmed salmon have a higher percentage of fat, but not the good Omega 3′s. The fat contains more Omega 6, which is the one that makes us fat. But of greater concern is the organic pollutants like PCB’s which are stored in fat. The pellets of ground up feed fish are already very high in PCB’s and become even more concentrated the higher on the food chain.
Thanks for this report – Just another reason to get open-net farms out of the oceans.
I guess that It’s no surprise then that both Cargill and Monsanto, which grow this genetically grown soy, are founding members of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, GAA, which coordinates the development of “Best Aquaculture Practises” ,BAP.
BAP regulates certification standards to promote responsible practices across the aquaculture industry. They just “certified” Marine Harvest, Grieg and Cermaq salmon farms – farms that are heavily criticized on many fronts (disease, sea lice, sea floor pollution, seal killing, etc) by many environmental groups and scientist around the world.
http://www.gaalliance.org/members/index.php?expanddiv=Founding
What a crooked old boys school!
Omega 6 oil is also highly inflammatory; it sets off the immune system which sets off the cortisol cycle which leads to deposition of belly fat, which fat sends out cycle-looping hormones and makes the situation perpetuate and worse. It is a disease enhancer. Have a nice fish taco with your GMO corn taco
All I can say is that eating soy us selfs is much better for environment than feeding it to animals!