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Organic Scamon: A Fish by Another Name Does NOT Smell As Sweet

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Created on Sunday, 13 May 2012 09:15
Written by Creative Commons
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Organic Scamon - The Greenwashing of Toxic Farmed Salmon
by Don Staniford l SalmonFarmingKills.com
The integrity of the global ‘organic’ brand was dealt a fatal blow late last week when salmon farmed in open net cages in Canada were given the green light for certification.  ‘Organic’ salmon farmed will “be able to be certified in a year” according to the new standards released on Thursday (10 May). 
A previous draft of the standard is available online here – the final standard is currently not available online but should be available online here.  
 
The move to certify Canadian farmed salmon as ‘organic’ comes as the deadly disease Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) rages on the East coast of Canada in Nova Scotia and has been reported (along with piscine rheovirus - associated with Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation) at an ‘organic’ salmon farm in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in British Columbia. 
 
The decision by the Canadian General Standards Board was met with vocal criticism.  Living Oceans Society told The Edmonton Journal (10 May) that the standard “has as many holes as a net pen.”
 
“It was biased from the start,” said Kelly Roebuck of Living Oceans Society in British Columbia in an interview with The Vancouver Sun (10 May).  “This was really a standard that was created by the government and industry to be able to okay the status quo in conventional aquaculture practices.” 
 
[Please see full report at  SalmonFarmingKills.com here.]