Farmed and Dangerous?: The Harmful Results of the Modern Salmon Industry
Up until around 1996 practically all salmon found at food retailers was wild-caught. The salmon from this era was natural, allowed to roam the waters and hunt their natural prey free from human intervention right up until they were caught on the line. However, due to excessive overfishing their populations dwindled, leading the salmon industry to attempt new and (seemingly) innovative ways of cultivating salmon - through methods of farming.
The issue, as always, is that when we divert from the natural path things tend to become artificial at best and downright toxic at worst. Farmed salmon is no exception, as the large aquatic pens which often hold up to 200,000 salmon in crowded and diseased conditions cause us progressive health concerns once they reach our plates.
This is due to the unnatural living conditioned farmed salmon are subjected to. Salmon pens are only slightly above the sea-bed, and the tight living spaces mean the salmon swim amongst their own excrement and deceased kin. Vaccines, antibiotics, and steroids are used on the fish to keep them alive just long enough to reach maturity, which are then passed onto us when we consume them.
Despite their feed loosely constituting of smaller natural fish, large components are still made of a soy, wheat, and canola mixture. As a result, the omega 3-6 ratio of farmed salmon is on average 14 times worse than that of wild-caught salmon. To make matters more dire, farmed salmon has increased levels of trans-fats which have been proven to negatively influence your precursory HDL levels, leading to higher rates of heart disease.
It can be difficult to find wild-caught salmon in the modern fish markets as farmed-salmon has become pervasive due to it’s ease and simple manufacturing process, but this naturally comes at a cost to our health. Luckily, wild-caught salmon is easy to spot due to the rich red colouring of the meat and a vast reduction in the fatty lines separating each fillet. Farmed salmon would look a pale grey if their feed wasn't supplemented with red pigment!
When salmon are allowed to feed on their natural diet of crustaceans and other small aquatic creatures, and when they are free to swim in the pristine water of our deep and beautiful oceans, their nutritional value and health becomes vastly superior to farmed salmon. This in turn leads us into better health as their beneficiaries, a trade well-worth the health benefits.