Fishy labeling - Congress approved a provision to allow wild-harvested seafood to be labeled organic - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, August, 2003

On April 16, 2003, Congress approved a provision to allow wild-harvested seafood to be labeled organic. However, this blow to fish farmers is also outraging some organic advocates.

The Alaska-backed bill allows wild fish to be labeled organic, but it's been an upstream battle. Critics, including organic purists, say that no one knows or controls what wild fish eat. In fact, an advisory panel to the US Department of Agriculture concluded in 2001 that wild seafood should not qualify as organic, but it left the door open to the idea that farmed fish might be labeled organic.

Proponents of Alaska salmon, however, counter that wild fish are inherently natural and pristine--whereas farmed fish are plagued with diseases, pumped full of antibiotics and devoid of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids that wild fish contain.

The wild seafood provision says that rules should be devised for the organic fish label after consulting with the National Organic Standards Board and others. Once these rules are in place, the organic label could be a tremendous boost to wild-harvested seafood sales.

In other organics news, President George W. Bush signed a measure repealing a provision that allowed meat from animals not raised on 100 percent organic feed to be sold, nevertheless, as organic. Organic feed often costs twice as much as other feed.