Martin Jaffa
NGO explains its recent attack on salmon farming
AT the end of last year, the NGO Feedback shared a short video on Twitter. This showed an attempt to find Lochmuir, the loch where M&S supposedly grow its salmon, even though it is clearly apparent that Lochmuir is just a trademark. At the end of the video, M&S was given the ‘Total Bull’ award for misleading labelling.
The video intrigued me enough to request a meeting with the NGO. Consequently, I visited its London office, where I met with executive director Carina Millstone and head of communications and policy Jess Sinclair Taylor.
What is Feedback?
Feedback is an environmental NGO based in London. The overall mission aims to regenerate nature by transforming the food system. The group specifically looks at food issues from an environmental perspective.
When the NGO was established, the initial target was food waste, but this remit has been subsequently expanded to include issues where there is a waste of natural resources.
For example, sugar. The production of sugar utilises significant resources for something that has no nutritional value and is additionally bad for human health.
The land and other resources could be much better utilised to produce something that has a nutritional benefit.
Anaerobic digestion is also targeted since crops are used to create biogas rather than being used for food.
Of more interest to the aquaculture industry, Feedback says that there is an inherent inefficiency in growing crops or harvesting fish from the wild to feed animals rather than to feed people.
How is Feedback funded?
Funds are raised in a variety of ways, but the campaign against salmon farming is specifically funded by the Waterloo Foundation.
This was established in 2007 by the founders of the Admiral Group, one of the largest private sector employers in Wales and a group listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Admiral Group owns insurance companies.
How did Feedback become interested in salmon farming?
The focus on Scottish salmon farming developed because Feedback is a UK NGO and salmon are the most farmed species in the British Isles.
Feedback says that its interest in salmon farming arose because there is a sense that the industry has grown exponentially, but with relatively little civil society scrutiny.
The NGO says that most consumers don’t even realise that salmon is farmed so there is no awareness of animal welfare issues as there has been with battery chickens.
Feedback also claims there is a disconnect between how Scottish salmon is positioned as a sustainable healthy product and the reality of the impacts of fish based feeds. It argues that the impact of fish feed is less well understood and less in the public eye.
What is the issue with fish feed?
In the past, Feedback has worked on sustainable animal feeds and it knows what a sustainable pig feed should look like; but it now wants to know what it means for salmon feeds.
Through its interest in pig feeds, Feedback became aware that fishmeal was being used as an ingredient in pig rations and this has brought
the team to look at the wider use and impacts of fishmeal production, especially in fish feeds. They are unhappy that fish are caught in vast quantities from fragile ecosystems in one part of the world and are then transformed into fishmeal, making them into a commodity. This is then fed to other fish in a different part of the world, especially in areas where protein is already overconsumed.
How would Feedback change the way forage fish are utilised?
Feedback would rather that people eat these fish directly than send them for fishmeal production.
The group has worked with a chef to produce tasty dishes from fish such as blue whiting, which is widely used for fishmeal.
Of course, most British consumers would turn their noses up at blue whiting just as they do at many other edible species.
However, Feedback believes that human diets are changing rapidly and therefore there is no reason why our taste for fish could not change too.
They make the point that not so long ago, who would have thought that British consumers would be eating raw fish as in sushi.
Why did Feedback highlight M&S Lochmuir brand?
Feedback is concerned that salmon farming trades on Scotland’s good name to produce a premium product which is essentially for the international market, and that those who will ultimately benefit are the institutional shareholders trading on the Oslo stock exchange.
Its view of the corporate image of salmon farming is also expressed in the way that it believes that salmon is marketed behind misleading branding such as Lochmuir.
This, said Feedback, obscures the true origin of the fish and the impact it has on issues such as the use of forage fish. The video was intended to bring this to the attention of more consumers.
I am indebted to Carina and Jess for giving me an insight into the issues that drive their NGO. I think that they might have been surprised that I agreed with many of their sentiments.
Maybe it is madness to feed fish to fish, although carnivorous salmon eat other fish in the wild; but, at the same time, it is surely much worse to be feeding fish to pigs and chicken which is still common practice.
However, the greatest madness is to be feeding fish to pet cats, of which there are more than 600 million in the world, and, increasingly, feeding fish to pet dogs, of which there are 900 million.
Over 10 years ago, pet cat consumption of fish was estimated to be around 2.45 million tonnes.
I highlighted a widely available pet food that is made from 35 per cent fishmeal (as opposed to trash fish), compared to the much lower levels of 14.7-25 per cent in salmon feeds as detailed in Feedback’s ‘Fishy Business’ report.
Carina did say that they hoped to extend their campaign soon to highlight the use of fish in pet food but this may be too little too late. Persuading pet owners to change their habits may be a challenge too far, which is why I suspect their focus has been on salmon farming.
Feedback also told me that UK funders have become more interested in salmon farming following the recent focus on the sustainability of the UK fishing industry. But their criticism of the corporate nature of salmon farming ignores the fact that Feedback’s funding also originates from a similar corporate source.
As I mentioned to Carina, the fundamental issue about wild catch fisheries is not about the fish at all, or even salmon farming, but rather that there are simply too many humans on this planet who over exploit the available natural resources. She replied that this was a different discussion, but surely it is one we cannot avoid. If NGOs like Feedback do not lead this discussion, then who will?
The ‘Fishy Business’ report can be read at feedbackglobal.org/campaigns/fishy-business/.
“Persuading pet owners to change their habits may be a challenge too