If trends continue as they’ve been projected
in the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations State of World Fisheries
and Aquaculture report, it is expected that
2009 will be the first year that human
consumption of farm-raised seafood
surpasses that of wild-caught.
shrimp, branzino and sturgeon, availability
and consistency of the product are key.
“Those are two of the biggest factors,” says
Fusco. “Done in a sustainable manner may
be more expensive, but the quality and
peace of mind you have when you use a
properly raised product? You can’t put a
dollar amount on that.”
“Farmed fish are the fastest-growing sector
of the aquaculture industry,” says Dr. Geoff
Shester, senior science manager for the
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable
Seafood Initiative.
Although it may be easy to lump all farm-raised seafood into the same “avoid”
category as red-listed farm-raised salmon,
bluefin or eels, the fact is, plenty of farmed
seafood appears on the green lists of
environmental groups such as the Monterey
Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, Blue
Ocean Institute, based in East Norwich,
N. Y., and the Environmental Defense Fund,
Washington, D.C., all of which offer wallet
guides designed to help steer consumers
toward more-sustainable seafood choices.
Sustainable choices
Earlier this year, the Washington, D.C.-based
World Wildlife Fund announced its plans to
launch the Aquaculture Stewardship Council
(ASC), which will act as a certification body
for farmed seafood products, similar to the
certification of wild fisheries done by the
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), based
in London, England. ASC is still a few years
away from operation, however. Until then,
other sourcing help is available to chefs.
•;Australis;Aquaculture,;Ltd.
www.thebetterfish.com
(413);863-2040
•;Hog;Island;Oyster;Co.
www.hogislandoysters.com
(415);663-9218
•;Kona;Blue;Water;Farms
www.kona-blue.com
(808);331-1188
•;Lauren;Farms,;Inc.
www.laurenfarms.com
(662);390-3528
•;Sunburst;Trout;Company
www.sunbursttrout.com
(828);648-3010
Farm-raised
sustainability
“Ocean-based farmed salmon we would
say is a clear ‘avoid,’” says Shester. “Farmed
bluefin tuna, because they are using wild
juveniles, and farmed freshwater eels for
unagi are a similar problem. Those are
some that are clearly in the ‘avoid’ column,
but we always say, ‘for now,’ because, who
knows, with enough pressure, some good
innovation will happen.”
In August, FishChoice.com was launched,
and currently provides a list of more than
130 suppliers offering a variety of wild-caught and farm-raised sustainable seafood
that meet the requirements of the site’s six
nonprofit seafood-conservation partners:
MSC; the Seafood Watch Program; Blue
Ocean Institute; Fish Wise, Santa Cruz, Calif.;
SeaChoice, based in Vancouver, Canada;
and the New England Aquarium, Boston.
Richard Boot, founder/president of
FishChoice.com, says, “We found
that buyers appreciated information
on sustainable seafood [provided by
conservation groups], but the hardest thing
was sourcing the actual product.”
While there’s no one overarching rule that
applies to all farm-raised seafood, some
guidelines for sustainable choices would
include looking for fish that eat primarily
vegetarian feed, such as U.S. farm-raised
tilapia or catfish, or those with an efficient
feed ratio, such as farmed rainbow trout.
Bivalves such as oysters, clams and mussels
are consistently good choices. Arctic char,
which is a good alternative to salmon, is
farmed in closed circulating systems that
eliminate the risk of escape or transference
of disease to wild stocks. U.S. farm-raised
abalone also gets a nod.
For chefs like Anthony Fusco, executive
chef at Harbour in New York, who seeks
out sustainably raised oysters, mussels,
Farm-raised goodness
For kampachi, Kona Blue Water Farms
employs a hatch-to-harvest approach and
a sustainable diet that sets this operation
apart from other types of tuna ranching or
www.acfchefs.org
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