The hidden harms of your Christmas salmon

Leaving salmon off the holiday recipes has become unthinkable. During the festive season, supermarkets nudge us towards choosing salmon for our Christmas dinner, through advertising and special promotions like recipe suggestions and posters.

However, the pleasant atmosphere associated with this fish can be deceiving. The salmon we find in our supermarkets mostly come out of industrial farms in countries like Norway, with its industry alone producing 1.479 million tonnes of farmed salmon last year.

Feedback has been working on the issues related to salmon farming for a while, denouncing the inefficiency, ecological harms and social injustice that come with it. We find it crucial that people are aware of these problems and able to make informed decisions when cooking for their loved ones, so here are 5 insights you can bring to the table should people wonder why you opted out of salmon for Christmas this time around:

1. A recent scientific article found that to produce 1kg of farmed salmon, it can take up to 6kg of whole, wild fish. Assuming that most of these wild fish are edible, this could be up to 60 portions of fish (100g) per kg of farmed salmon. These are smaller fish like sardines, blue whiting, sardinella, anchovies and we can eat them directly. But they are those most often ground up for feed for farmed fish. It turns out that many nutrients are lost in the process of feeding these perfectly edible fish to farmed salmon.
2. A part of these smaller (pelagic) fish are sourced from West Africa, where in countries like Senegal and the Gambia, people depend on them for their nutrition and livelihoods. In the 2 decades, the fishmeal and oil industry in that region has been booming, leading to, coupled with overfishing, increasing scarce fish populations. Their primary source of income, and way of life, scarce, many from the fishing communities on the West African coast see no other option than to look for better circumstances elsewhere, risking their lives on the way.
3. Labels strive to push companies in the right direction, but this does not always succeed. Some certifications don’t go far enough, and, as a consumer, it’s really hard to tell. Farmed Chilean salmon at Albert Heijn for example is ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) certified, but still contributes to environmental destruction in what should be marine protected areas. We have also found that only half of ASC feed is required to come from certified fisheries.
4. Given all the harms of this mass (aquatic) livestock production, we believe that supermarkets should not promote the purchase of farmed salmon. It drives demand for a destructive way to produce food, and almost exclusively benefits the large corporations seeking ever higher revenues.
5. Luckily, alternatives are easily available. Opting for seaweed, plant-based alternatives, shellfish, or smaller fish offers a more responsible choice. And there’s no shortage of recipes either!

We’ve made a short infographic that’s easy to share:

Download the factsheet here!

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