The culture of aquaculture - what is organic?

If you’re baffled by organic seafood, don’t be embarrassed—things are a little confusing these days. The United States has no organic standards for seafood, but you can buy organic seafood in the supermarket. More confusingly, shrimp, according to one organic certifying agency, are livestock, and some people want to use what are essentially agricultural standards to judge wild fish.


Organic Certification
First, let’s get one thing clear: The United States National Organic Program, run by the USDA, has no standards for seafood. As of this writing, a taskforce is being assembled and is charged with developing a proposal for organic standards for farmed and wildcaught aquatic animals to present to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). Some fear the final rule could be three to four years away.

Now, to confuse the issue. Two U.S. shrimp farms are certified organic under the USDA program. This is not unprecedented: The National Organic Program does not have standards for restaurants, yet several, starting with Nora Pouillon’s Restaurant Nora in 1999, are certified organic. The program allows certifiers to apply the organic guidelines to products and distributors that are not specifically listed in the rules, which is what Quality Certification Services (QCS) of Florida did in certifying OceanBoy Farms and Permian Sea Shrimp Co. QCS used the USDA’s livestock standards—more traditionally applied to cattle and sheep—to evaluate the shrimp farms.

The greater confusion, however, stems from the fact that "organic" farm-raised products certified by European agencies such as Naturland are popping up all over. The great selling point of the USDA organic program is that it is a guarantee of minimum standards. Simply by looking at the organic seal on beef, you know the animal ate 100% organic feed, even if you don’t know if it was entirely grass-fed or whether it roamed freely in the open range. The confusion in organic seafood arises from the lack of official USDA standards and the variety of foreign certifications, where there is no consistency. Jim Riddle, chair of the NOSB, cautions chefs: "Anyone wanting to buy those products should look carefully at the standards and feel comfortable and knowledgeable about what they’re buying...it’s not the same ‘organic’ as defined by the National Organic Program." Even critics agree that the organic products are more sustainable and of higher quality than most of the conventionally farmed products, but is it meaningful to you?


Quality
Matt King, the chef at the Stanhope Grille at Jurys Hotel Boston, recently served an organic seafood menu in conjunction with the International Boston Seafood Show. He served organic cod, salmon, dorade, branzini, and shrimp, all supplied by Emerald Organics. He was pleasantly surprised.

Page through Chefs Collaborative’s Seafood Solutions, and you’ll find that inferior taste is cited as a key reason to avoid farmed salmon, right up there with destructive environmental impacts. The taste is usually blamed on the feed, which sometimes contains byproducts such as chicken litter, and the poor muscle development of fish raised in crowded pens. If "organic" aquaculture standards are higher, wouldn’t it stand to reason the quality would be higher?

King says yes. "It’s the whole process—starting from fishmeal that’s made out of fish caught for human consumption, so you know they’re eating high-quality feed...they’re raised in open sea pens, so they’re swimming in the current." The result, he says, is that the fish "don’t look, at first glance, like farmed fish. They don’t have a smooth-skinned stomach or underdeveloped fins; they look like wild fish." The bottom line? "There’s no replacement for a wild king salmon from Alaska when it’s in season," says King, "but when that’s not available, this is most definitely a great second alternative."


Environment
Even if the better production methods produce a better-tasting fish, do they mitigate the environmental concerns?

Feed: A major criticism of aquaculture of carnivorous fish such as salmon or cod is the use of fishmeal or fish oil in the feed, which results in a net loss of protein from the seas. Johnson Seafarms, certified by the Organic Food Federation, produces organic cod. The cod are fed fishmeal made from the byproducts of fish caught for human consumption —in other words, no additional fish are caught to feed the farm-raised fish. This resolves many concerns, but leads some critics to ask how that can be considered organic, if the organic label is not extended to wild-caught fish. OceanBoy Farms, anticipating this objection in the United States, has found an innovative solution. The company raises tilapia, a vegetarian fish, on an all-organic vegetarian diet as feed for its shrimp.

Waste: The issue of waste will be a major one in the development of US organic standards. How aquaculture operations will be expected to deal with waste remains to be seen. OceanBoy Farms has a fully contained system and recycles the wastewater. Opensea operations, even organic or sustainable ones, largely address the issue by letting the sea flush it away. Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist at Environmental Defense who participated in a 2001 NOSB task force on organic aquaculture, doesn’t buy the "dilution as a solution to pollution" argument. She believes organic aquaculture operations need an integrated approach, such as growing seaweed or shellfish in the wastewater to help filter it.

Contaminants: Goldburg argues that an organic rule for farmed or wild fish will need to address contaminants. Organic certification is not a health claim; it is a guarantee that a product was raised in a certain manner. That potentially opens the door for an organic fish that is so high in mercury that it is dangerous for pregnant women or children to eat. "How could one in good conscience sell a product that’s relatively high in contaminants as organic?" asks Goldburg. Riddle agrees that the issue of contaminants needs to be addressed by the new taskforce. "The current regulation sets limits for environmental contaminants in agricultural products. For example, a crop cannot be sold as organic if it contains over 5% of the Environmental Protection Agency’s established tolerance. It can still be sold as food, but not as organic food. We need similar limits for potential contaminants in aquatic products."

Industrial vs. Artisanal
Tim O’Shea of CleanFish and Henry Lovejoy of EcoFish, both purveyors of sustainable seafood, argue that small-scale, sustainable aquaculturists, whether organic or not, need support. Lovejoy, whose company distributes OceanBoy’s organic shrimp, says, "It is really core to our mission at EcoFish to support these efforts." O’Shea, who distributes Loch Duart salmon from Scotland, is dubious of the organic labels, and points to Niman Ranch as an example of a company that has chosen to avoid labels while focusing on animal welfare and better practices. He and Lovejoy think that anyone, fisherman or aquaculturist, who avoids industrial methods and is working hard to make the best choices and sell the highest-quality fish needs to be supported. O’Shea regards many of the small-scale aquaculturists as the new organic farmers. "They’re as committed as the old line, back to the country, first wave of organic farmers," he says. "Do they have it all right? No, they don’t."


Conclusion?
The answers aren’t easy, particularly in the absence of USDA organic regulations. Organic aquaculture by anyone’s definition seems to be better than the conventional industrial aquaculture model. For chefs such as Holly Smith, of Café Juanita, in Seattle, that’s probably not enough when it comes to ocean aquaculture. She rarely serves salmon at all, choosing to leave even wild Alaska salmon to other restaurants and encouraging customers to try different seafood and meats. Still, says Smith, "I applaud the conversation. Something good has to come out of that, right?"

FAQs & Resources

Are Wild Fish Organic?
Wild fish are not certified as "organic" by any organic certification agency in the world. Jim Riddle, chair of the National Organic Standards Board, believes a "certified wild" designation would be more meaningful. He recommends that chefs use Marine Stewardship Council certified fish or other products from well-managed fisheries.

What Is Organic?
Organic standards govern the processes and inputs that guarantee that an animal or crop has been raised in accordance with certain regulations and guidelines. They guarantee the process of production, not the healthfulness or safety of a product, which is why many people question how the guidelines could ever be adapted to cover wild fish. In the United States, the National Organic Program is administered by the USDA: USDA web site.

What Is Aquaculture?
The cultivation of any water-dwelling creature or plant is aquaculture. Some people reserve "aquaculture" for freshwater, preferring the slightly more precise term "mariculture" for marine operations.

Ask Questions
Buyer beware, says Rebecca Goldburg of Environmental Defense. "Organic" isn’t standardized; be sure that you know what you’re buying. Goldburg recommends asking producers or suppliers the following questions:

- Are any medications used?
- If you’re buying trout or salmon, was there any coloring in the diet, and what was it?
- Where does the feed come from, and was it tested for contaminants?
- Does the producer do any testing of the finished product?

- Why do you think the fish were raised in an ecologically sound manner?

Resources
The Marine Stewardship Council works with independent scientists to certify that fisheries are using sustainable fishing methods and maintaining the fish stocks. Certified fisheries are allowed to use the MSC logo on their products: MSC website.


"NOSB Aquatic Animals Task Force Report," March 2001
NOSB website.


"Defining Organic Seafood" by Jenn Abelson, March 12, 2005, Boston Globe.


Environmental Defense
Envoirnmental Defense website.

Producers and Suppliers
EcoFish - Purveyor of sustainable seafood Ecofish website.

Emerald Organics - Purveyor of organic seafood Emerald Organics website.

CleanFish - Purveyor of sustainable seafood
(415) 387-3302

OceanBoy Farms - Producer of USDA organic shrimp
www.oceanboy.com

Permian Sea Shrimp
Producer of USDA organic shrimp Permian Shrimp website.


Carol Trauner is the former publications director of Chefs Collaborative. She is now a graduate student in the Agriculture, Food, and Environment program at the Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy at Tufts University. Chefs Collaborative welcomes your thoughts—please send comments or questions to Info@chefscollaborative.org.

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