I like to include fish every once in a while in my diet to get my Omega-3 fatty acids, but I have been confused for some time on what kind of fish is best to buy. One time I saw organic fish on the shelf at the grocery store, but I saw that it was farmed raised, and that just confused me...
As you can see I've been debating with seafood for some time. Which one should I buy? Farm Raised? Wild Caught? Organic? Sustainably Fished? I decided to begin my research with Organic seafood and I was surprised at what I found, initially I
thought there could be nothing more organic than wild caught seafood,
since the seafood is in its natural habitat and not being fed pellets of
man-made food. But that was not the case.
According to the New York Times, The Agriculture Department has determined that fish have to be farmed and fed organic food to be classified certified organic, this is very simple for vegetarian fish like Tilapia and Catfish that can be easily fed an organic vegetarian diet, but it becomes more complicated for carnivorous fish, like Salmon which apparently cannot be called organic because they have to eat other fish (and there is no telling if the fish being fed is organic to begin with.)
What about Sustainable fishing? Sustainable fishing is environmentally friendly and specific fish are caught in creative ways to avoid disruptions of other fish species not designed to be fished, not only that but the fishermen only fish a specific amount of fish and do not over-fish. This method of fishing is particularly good when the seafood is fished in the United States. We specially want to make sure that we avoid buying seafood from China, because their seafood is mainly farm raised or fished in unsustainable ways.
So which seafood is best? Well, that is a tough call! Personally I prefer Sustainable Fishing because fish are in their own habitats and are not fed man-made foods. But Organic Farm-Raised fish are also good. We definitely want to avoid buying farm-raised, or Asian (wild-caught or farmed-raised) fish because this fish is caught and farmed in unsustainable ways and was probably fed genetically modified food, and we definitely don’t want that with our healthy fish meal!
I hope this helps in your quest to finding the right seafood, just make sure you ask questions, ask where your fish comes from, where it was caught, how it was raised, because you are paying for it, and it’s your right to know!
According to the New York Times, The Agriculture Department has determined that fish have to be farmed and fed organic food to be classified certified organic, this is very simple for vegetarian fish like Tilapia and Catfish that can be easily fed an organic vegetarian diet, but it becomes more complicated for carnivorous fish, like Salmon which apparently cannot be called organic because they have to eat other fish (and there is no telling if the fish being fed is organic to begin with.)
What about Sustainable fishing? Sustainable fishing is environmentally friendly and specific fish are caught in creative ways to avoid disruptions of other fish species not designed to be fished, not only that but the fishermen only fish a specific amount of fish and do not over-fish. This method of fishing is particularly good when the seafood is fished in the United States. We specially want to make sure that we avoid buying seafood from China, because their seafood is mainly farm raised or fished in unsustainable ways.
So which seafood is best? Well, that is a tough call! Personally I prefer Sustainable Fishing because fish are in their own habitats and are not fed man-made foods. But Organic Farm-Raised fish are also good. We definitely want to avoid buying farm-raised, or Asian (wild-caught or farmed-raised) fish because this fish is caught and farmed in unsustainable ways and was probably fed genetically modified food, and we definitely don’t want that with our healthy fish meal!
I hope this helps in your quest to finding the right seafood, just make sure you ask questions, ask where your fish comes from, where it was caught, how it was raised, because you are paying for it, and it’s your right to know!
No comments:
Post a Comment