According to the World Wildlife Fund, farmed Salmon is the fastest growing food production system in the world. It accounts for 70% of the salmon market. Salmon consumption, and by nature, production has tripled since 1980. These are objectively striking figures. There’s no market quite like it in the world. But, why? What’s so special about salmon?
There’s a few reasons why the market for Salmon has exploded since the 1980s, and much of it has to do with Norway.
Nowadays, salmon is a staple in sushi, but not too long ago, eating raw salmon was unheard of in Japan. You’d never find it in a sushi roll. But that changed in the 1980s, when, per a 2015 NPR report, the country of Norway was dealing with a surplus of salmon and experimented with a solution that would eventually solve their problem: convince the Japanese to purchase salmon and incorporate it in sushi dishes. For a country with such a tight culture such as Japan, that sounds like a tall task, but it worked. And, the rest is history. You can find salmon rolls almost everywhere, from grocery stores to sushi restaurants, all over the world, but especially in Canada, the United States, and Brazil.
There’s only so much wild salmon in the world that can be cultivated, and due to our changing climate, that is being threatened even further. The Norwegians pioneered salmon farming in the 1960s, as an experiment, when the country’s natural population of salmon were threatened due to overfishing and a combination of environmental factors. The industry would become fully commercialized in Norway by the 1980s, but as the government began to enforce more stringent environmental regulations, many pioneering companies sought expansion in an effort to skirt regulation, first to countries like Canada, and then onto to Chile. The rapid growth of the farmed salmon industry amid shifting regulations have certainly contributed to the globally precarious position we find ourselves in today regarding the farmed salmon industry and the threats it poses to the environment, ecosystem, and, potentially human health.
Much of the information currently available about the potential threat to human health by farmed salmon is contradictory at best. In a 2022 TIME Magazine article, the authors offer reasons why one should “avoid” farmed salmon, and they reference studies that support their stance. Some concerns that researchers found were evidence of high levels of carcinogens and drug-resistant antibiotics in farmed salmon. These are obviously not something we want to expose ourselves to, especially if it’s preventable, but is it fact? The Washington State Department of Health proclaims that farmed Salmon is safe. They acknowledge the findings referenced in the TIME Magazine article, but they counter those by claiming that follow-up studies haven’t been able to confirm the findings. Even more, they claim that the general consensus among “scientists” is that farmed salmon is safe.
The farmed salmon industry is big business, and it’s good business. The industry is worth approximately $15 billion worldwide. That doesn’t include wild caught salmon. What started as an experiment in Norway in the 1960s became practice in the 1980s and spread around the world to countries including Chile, Scotland, Canada, the Faroe Islands, and Australia in the 1990s. Nowadays, the production facilities of many Salmon farms resemble that of an Amazon fulfillment center, massive in scale and with cutting edge technology. Albeit lucrative, it’s an expensive industry and there’s high barriers to entry. That has contributed to the growth of Salmon farming in oil-rich countries like Dubai and the consolidation of the industry elsewhere. The following graph is from Mowi‘s 2022 annual report, and it details the consolidation of the industry in just the last 25 years.
The costs of the rapidly growing aquaculture industry are a primary focus for many environmental groups around the globe. The issue is complex and nuanced. We mustn’t work to eradicate the industry but rather work together to provide ethical and sustainable solutions. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Association have determined that we, as a global society, need to produce more protein in order to sustain the planet’s population growth. It’s important to note that we can’t afford to sacrifice more land to do so. So, what does that leave us? The ocean. Wild fish isn’t a sustainable solution though. There’s simply not enough if we rely on natural reproduction. Insert fish farming. It’s a sustainable solution to make our oceans more productive, but it comes with a cost. Some of the dangers of fish farming – specifically salmon farming – include pollution of natural ecosystems, the threat of wild species’ extinction, and potential toxicity to humans through the use of antibiotics and pesticides. Based on the information in the graph below, aquaculture isn’t going anywhere. We must learn to live with it in a conscious way.
Most of what we do on land impacts – or ends up – in the ocean by way of freshwater conduits; lakes, rivers, and streams. Wild salmon gives us the first look at how our actions on land impact the oceans, because of their anadromous behavior. It would be sadly and wildly ironic if we were to facilitate the extinction of a natural barometer of the Earth’s temperature.
What do we know for sure? The salmon farming industry is here to stay. Demand for the fish is only expected to grow. Our global food supply is going to grow constrained with the population. The Earth’s climate is changing. Salmon farming and aquaculture as a whole present threats to natural ecosystems. So, what can be done about it all of this?
What is being done to mitigate the threats of Salmon farming?
The good news is that something is already being done about it, something that at one point in time would have sounded ludicrous and near impossible: indoor salmon farming. It’s viewed as the next big growth opportunity within the aquaculture industry, and for that reason, investors are piling their money into it. It’s an incredibly challenging process, and it has taken a global collective effort to make land-based salmon farming economically viable and environmentally sound.
A result of incredibly innovative research and development, salmon farms can be found in some of the most improbable places, like rural Indiana, the Gobi Desert, and the Florida Everglades. Superior Fresh, a regenerative farm in a small rural Wisconsin town, is on the cutting edge of sustainability in salmon farming. Byproducts such as nitrogen and phosphorous are removed and rerouted to their greenhouses for application elsewhere. The fish are constantly spending their time in clean water, an important factor in protecting their health, and in turn, those who consume it. Steve Summerfelt, Superior Fresh’s head of research and development, told Science Magazine, “Sometimes the water is so clean it looks like the fish are swimming in air”. This is an example of a truly sustainable solution.
Maybe instead of blankly suggesting we “avoid farmed salmon” altogether, outlets as influential as TIME Magazine should change the narrative to something more practical: how and where you can purchase responsibly farmed salmon. Companies like Superior Fresh have online stores where you can get salmon delivered directly from the source. Bluehouse Salmon, who operates a farm in the Florida Everglades, has a comprehensive digital presence. Their website is vibrant and full of rich content. The company and its products are marketed like any trendy high fashion item would be. They have a strong social media presence, particularly on TikTok and Instagram. I find this fascinating because topics like “ethically sourced”, “good for the planet”, and “heart healthy” never used to be attractive and marketable. It was few and far between that you’d find a company building their entire brand on values like these, especially in an attempt to grab the attention of a younger demographic.
So, instead of shunning the inevitable, Capitalism doesn’t have to kill the planet. Let’s use it to our advantage. The more we consume from ethically sound organizations with sustainable practices like Bluehouse Salmon, Superior Farms, Kuterra, AquaBounty and Pure Salmon – to introduce a few more – the more investment capital will be funneled into companies like the aforementioned and ancillary efforts supporting the industry. That’s putting capitalism to good use for the environment. Let’s do more of it.