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The following guest blog was submitted by Shauna MacKinnon with the Living Oceans Society and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform.

You might remember some talk about organic aquaculture in the U.S. a couple of years back, late 2008 to be exact. That was when, after many years of deliberation, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) voted on recommendations for U.S. organic aquaculture standards. You might be wondering why you haven’t seen any U.S.-certified organic fish since. The short answer is the USDA has not yet taken those recommendations and promulgated them into law. That means the U.S. still does not have any official organic aquaculture standards on the books.

Meanwhile, north of the border in Canada where exporting farmed seafood to the U.S. is a huge business, industry has been busy coming up with organic standards of their own. This summer, with the support of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a Canadian draft organic aquaculture standard was released. It’s not all bad. The standards include seaweed and shellfish standards that include strong elements that prohibit the use of synthetic parasiticides, the direct disposal of waste into the marine environment, and the destruction of aquatic organisms or their habitat. Unfortunately, the draft is not all good either; the standards for farmed finfish allow the kinds of practices prohibited for shellfish!

Here’s what a Canadian “organic” farmed fish would look like under the proposed standards:
- Antibiotics and synthetic pesticides can be used,
- Net pens can keep disposing all fish feces and waste into the ocean,
- Unlike other organic meats that need 100% organic-certified feed, 30% of fish feed can be from non-organic sources including wild fish that can contain PCBs, heavy metals and dioxins, and
- Net pens can spread sea lice to wild juvenile salmon despite scientific evidence documenting sea lice from net pen salmon farms are lethal to wild salmon.

These proposed standards are not only troubling from a seafood sustainability point of view, their inconsistency with current organic standards would cause consumer confusion and undermine consumer confidence in the organic label. Low organic standards would also undermine efforts to truly improve the sustainability of aquaculture–by conservation groups, innovators in the aquaculture industry, and the chefs, businesses and consumers who are trying to make informed choices in the marketplace.

This is not just a Canadian issue. Over 70% of Canadian farmed salmon is sold in the U.S. marketplace and could be labeled organic until the U.S. finalizes their own standards—unless you’re lucky enough to live in California which has regulations preventing non-U.S. organic certifications from being labeled as organic.

A low-bar Canadian standard also influences the U.S. recommendations for aquaculture. Canada and the U.S. currently have an equivalency agreement for organic standards and if Canada puts weak organic aquaculture standards in place it will be easier for the USDA to weaken the NOSB’s recommendations. The standards recommended by the NOSB include more stringent requirements than the proposed Canadian standard that avoid impacts on wild fish and other marine life, limit waste disposal into the ocean, reduce the amount of wild fish in feed and prohibit the use of antibiotics and parasiticides/pesticides.

But all is not lost. You can help keep organic standards strong and support seafood sustainability—the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) is accepting public comments until August 30, 2010. Remember the U.S. is the largest market for Canadian farmed seafood, so American chefs definitely have a voice in this process.

You can download the standards and comment form from the CGSB website and read more about how the draft standards differ from current organic practices on the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform site.

You can also join with organizations and individuals from across North America and sign onto our joint letter. Click here to see a copy of the sign-on letter.

To sign on to the letter: send an email with your name, title and business name (if applicable)to Shauna MacKinnon, Markets Campaign Coordinator at the Living Oceans Society. Click here to send an email to Shauna.

With your help the organic label will continue to provide consumers with a clear and consistent understanding of how their food is produced and ensure them that their choice of an organic food product supports a safer, more humane, more sustainable environment!