Five Reasons to Buy Wild Salmon

Many people know that wild salmon is better than farmed salmon.  Here are 5 reasons why listed by the Sierra Club.

1. Farmed salmon pollute.  Salmon are raised in farms of floating net-pens.  The immense accumulation of waste products can spoil the local environment and spread disease. In addition to natural wastes, farmed salmon are given antibiotics as well as other drugs that may harm humans and local ecosystems.

2. Farmed salmon escape. Storms, sea lions, and net breaks cause large releases of farmed salmon into the environment.  A significant portion of salmon farmed in the Pacific is, in fact, Atlantic salmon.  Escaped fish may ultimately compete with and displace native stocks.

3. Farmed salmon is expensive.  Farmed salmon represent a net loss of protein, requiring 3-5 pounds of fishmeal to yield a pound of salmon.  Think about the energy expended to catch, process and transport the fishmeal, and "less expensive" salmon seems very expensive.

4. Eating wild salmon is better for you. As with livestock, farmed salmon are given the same antibiotics used to treat humans, a practice condemned by the World Health Organization for contributing to worldwide antibiotic resistance. Wild salmon are not only drug- and antibiotic-free, they also have higher levels beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and lower levels of harmful saturated fats. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmed Atlantic salmon contain 70 percent more fat than wild Atlantic salmon and 200 percent more fat than wild Pacific pink and chum salmon. But perhaps most importantly, farm-raised salmon have been found to contain significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon caught in the wild.

5. Wild salmon is tastier.  It has better texture than farm-raised fish, which tend to be mushy and insipid. Without added dyes, farmed fish also lack the trademark color of natural salmon.

NOTE: For the very best salmon, buy it fresh and in season.  The best choices include troll-caught and Copper River salmon from Alaska. Most canned salmon is wild, but look on the label.  Lastly, keep in mind that while many wild salmon runs are threatened, endangered or even extinct, many are also still healthy. As a general rule, wild stocks in Alaska are faring far better than those of California and the Pacific Northwest. As for Atlantic salmon, there are virtually no harvestable wild runs left in the United States.

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