I met with Quentin and some of his colleagues at Waitrose HQ today.
I asked lots of questions and they gave me some answers, and a lot more documentation to read and digest and think about.
In summary (not very brief), my thoughts so far are:
On the plus side:
-waitrose want to be transparent about their farmed salmon and are prepared to open doors to let us or a documentary team- or both- have a look at how their salmon is farmed.
-they were at pains to point out that they are the first supermarket to properly address all of the issues that fish and indeed all seafood raise ( sustainability, other environmental impacts, quality, welfare, social issues).
-to their credit they admit that they have not yet got perfect solutions to all of these issues, and their farmed salmon certainly does not yet tick all the boxes. however, i think they can justifiably claim to be doing better than most.
But...
- I have to say that most of my personal reservations about farmed salmon persist- to put it baldly I would not eat, or serve to my son, farmed salmon - waitrose or otherwise. Is 'better than most' good enough when it comes to farming salmon? Not for me. However, I was most encouraged by initiatives they described, which suggest a genuine effort to combat the big issues discussed further down this thread on a number of fronts.
-I continue to be disturbed by research highlighting the problem of pollutants concentrated in salmon- PCBs, dioxins and other dioxin like substances. Some of it discussed here
So far I don't think this has been satisfactorily answered. Carnivores concentrate pollutants- if we were to live ona diet of peregrine falcons i imagine that would be unhealthy for us as well as falcon populations. We know we should limit how much tuna or swordfish we eat for our own health-putting aside their sustainability or otherwise. The same is true for salmon...but it's promoted as a healthy option, something to have every week. That to me sits uneasily with research saying we should only eat it a few times a year. Maybe the research is plain wrong- but so far the fish farming industry has failed to show that. Its something to think about when eating wild or farmed fish- sardines or mussels deliver your omega 3 with significantly less pcb or dioxin or mercury.
-at the heart of the other big problem- sustainability- is how you feed a carnivorous fish like a salmon in captivity: for the product to deliver the health benefit of omega 3 the salmon must be fed food with a high proportion of fish meal and fish oil- so wild fish are being rendered to raise farmed. waitrose are striving to make this a sustainable equation- but they haven't got there yet.
Conclusions?
Farmed seafood is undeniably going to be a part of our future - pretending its not is unrealistic, and condeming it out of hand won't make it go away. So whilst I don't think any farmed salmon is up there with, say, MSC certified mackerel or sardines, or farmed mussels, it would be great to think that developing consumer consciousness of what's at stake could help drive a change in that too , just as its driving a change in the wild sea fish -and indeed chicken and pork and other produce- we buy.
At the risk of repeating myself I think Waitrose should be commended for opening and engaging with the debate. Its not just a cynical view to say they stand to gain an edge over their competitors by doing so- of course they do..... but if waitrose build their market share by changing the market-and thence the environment - for the better, then thats a good thing in my book.