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Canwest News Service
Just when you thought we were all finished with farmed Atlantic salmon, now comes news that the New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture has officially become the first company in North America to offer eco-certified farmed Atlantic salmon. And while the certification of seafood is a growing trend, the certification of farmed seafood – in particular salmon – may just represent the next frontier in sustainable seafood for a global market hooked on the ocean's bounty. Heritage is the name brand of Cooke Aquaculture's salmon, and the label under which it is sold at supermarkets like Loblaws and Longos.
But what does this certification actually mean? The press materials say the salmon is certified under IFQC (International Food Quality Certification), an internationally recognized organization, and that the eco label requires Cooke Aquaculture to meet stringent standards in five key areas: Marine environment, feed, energy, water use, packaging and waste. Cooke Aquaculture sells more than 115 million pounds of salmon a year to markets across Canada and the U.S. – a hell of a lot of salmon. Which got me thinking about a dinner I had in Vancouver a few months ago.
I was in town researching a magazine feature, part of which involved eating a sustainable seafood feast with David Suzuki. As we dined on sweet crab and silky sea urchin at the Blue Water Café and Raw Bar in Yaletown, Suzuki told me the story of the Salmon Forest, narrating the tale with such warmth and expression that I felt as if I was being tucked in with a bedtime story for the planet.
"If you look along the coast of North America, all the way from Alaska to Northern California, between the coastal mountains and the sea, is this thin strip of land called the coastal temperate rain forest," he started. "The puzzle has always been that the biggest trees in the world are in these forests, but it rains so much that it washes all of the nutrients from the soil." What they found, he said, while putting down his eco-friendly folding travel chopsticks so that he could use his hands to better express himself, "is that when you clear-cut a forest, the salmon population around it plummets because salmon need the forest to keep the rivers cool. And now what scientists have found, is that the forest also needs the salmon."
Fish link the oceans to the forests to the animals and the rivers. They nourish and sustain. And what Suzuki has long known, and what the rest of us are finally wising up to, is that the world's marine life is being depleted at an alarming rate.
Last spring, I attended an event at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York Hotel to welcome the arrival of Ocean Wise – a big sustainable hit out west – to Ontario's shores. There were many fine Toronto chefs on hand to launch the new partnership, including C5's Ted Corrado, Pangaea's Martin Kouprie and Vertical's Tawfik Shehata. Also on deck were Mike McDermid, Ocean Wise's project manager, and chef Robert Clark of Vancouver's C restaurant, both of whom flew in from B.C. for the launch.
McDermid warmed the crowd up by telling us that by the year 2048, there's likely to be a total collapse of the world's fisheries unless we change our exploitation of the oceans. Added chef Clark, whom the Vancouver Aquarium approached in 2005 to help with the national Ocean Wise program, "The most important thing anyone can do is ask where his food comes from." The program now has more than 185 partners, ranging from universities to culinary schools and over 100 restaurants. Their bottom line: All seafood must be sustainable.
Chef Tawfik Shehata agrees, so much so that his seasonal Mediterranean menu at Vertical includes powerfully tasty and sustainable dishes such as seared east coast scallops with wax and fava beans and housemade bacon, and whole branzino fish cooked on the grill. But you will find no salmon on his menu. "Personally, I'm wary of any farmed salmon product," Shehata says. "The government says they have strict guidelines but they don't, and whatever guidelines they do have are not followed or properly enforced." He says he hasn't used salmon in years except for a brief stint this summer because he found a good wild-caught product from B.C.
As for the Heritage salmon brand, he thinks they're going in the right direction, but "it's tough to know based on what you read on their website."
Another chef who was part of Toronto's Ocean Wise kick-off was chef David Garcelon, the executive chef at the Fairmont Royal York. So I was surprised when it was announced this week that the Fairmont's Epic restaurant would be using Cooke's True North salmon, since farmed Atlantic salmon is listed in red as a no-go on the Ocean Wise list. I call Chef Garcelon to get to the bottom of it.
"One of reasons we went with Ocean Wise is that their position isn't to tell us that you can't have anything on your menu that's not Ocean Wise," he explains. "All they do is say, if you have stuff on your menu that's Ocean Wise, you can put the symbol next to it and the consumer can make the choice." He says the Royal York buys 10,000 kilos of salmon a year, but they also use local white fish, laughing bird shrimp and diver scallops, among other Ocean Wise choices. Yet when it comes to the salmon used throughout the hotel, whether fresh or smoked, "we just don't have the price point options," admits chef Garcelon. "I had a meeting a couple of days ago with a supplier who could sell me organic salmon, but it's flown in either from Ireland or Scotland and I don't think that's right – it's flown by 747 halfway around the world and we have good Canadian product that's from the Bay of Fundy, where the environment is pristine and because of the high tides there's less of an issue with the droppings on the ocean floor." He says what he likes about True North salmon is that it's a company that's aiming higher: "Are they Ocean Wise yet? No, but they're trying, and we're encouraging that."
So now I'm officially torn. Remembering my conversation with Suzuki, I contact him, figuring if anyone would know if this eco-certified farmed salmon is the real deal, it would be him. But I was wrong. His email back to me says: "Amy, I cannot tell what the company is doing that earns it this label nor can I see what the eco certification means. I'd suggest you contact Jay, head of our marine team and ask him."
And so I get in touch with researcher Jay Ritchlin, program director, marine and freshwater conservation for the Suzuki Foundation, and ask if he can finally settle the confusion and explain what the Heritage salmon's labelling means. "We don't think this is an eco certification," says Ritchlin. "This is a business-created marketing tool that has some ecological elements to it, but for certification to pass international practices it has to have a number of things." He tells me these include a multi-stakeholder development committee that includes people from conservation, science, government and industry. It has to have a decision-making body that has some appeal mechanism, "and it has to have transparent standards and measurements so that you can say, "Oh, OK, I understand what that means.' "
Clearly, Cooke Aquaculture's Heritage certification is not that. "It is created by industry for itself," says Ritchlin. "While Cooke Aquaculture has made some interesting efforts in improving their farming methods, we still don't consider them a sustainable aquiculture product," he says of the Suzuki Foundation's take on the matter. He adds that there's a big different between a food quality assurance certification and an actual eco certification, which I think is the reason why I, and so many others, have found this so confusing.
Responsible salmon, it would seem, is a term that has yet to be defined.
