Free 100 Million Years of Food by Stephen Le

ponds.
    Environmentalists would be far happier if salmon were raised in ponds that were inland instead of offshore, because the fish wastes and diseases would be contained more easily and escapees would be less of an issue. But raising a big fish like salmon in a pond is expensive: Salmon raised in recirculated water have a terrible taste, so rearing edible salmon requires either great quantities of freshwater or more extensive and expensive water treatment. Environmentalists counter by saying that open-water fish farms are polluting the oceans without paying, so it’s only fair that aquaculture companies should bear these costs.
    But it’s not just the aquaculture companies who would absorb the costs—consumers would have to pay a premium for the privilege of eating salmon raised inland. The main reason that I sat down to a dinner of salmon with Dounia and her friends was that the salmon had been farmed and was therefore affordable. As a marine scientist working on lobsters, Dounia knew about the problems of farmed salmon, but she didn’t have much choice. There was a fish market near her house, but it was only open when she was working. The same problem applies to sushi bars, which most commonly serve farmed salmon because it is easier to ship and keep fresh. Omega-3 fatty acids, which are easily damaged by heat and spoil quickly, are best obtained from fresh fish. Cooke Aquaculture prides itself on delivering fresh fish to consumers. The company’s biggest asset is its proximity to the major consumer markets in eastern North America, cities like Toronto, Montreal, and New York City; the salmon that ends up on supermarket shelves arrives within forty-eight hours. For many chefs passionate about serving the freshest fish available, farmed salmon is the most popular option.
    My tour continues to the Cooke fish-processing plant. The speed at which the salmon are processed is astonishing. The fish whiz along conveyer belts, and a well-groomed team pulls out fish parts when they face the wrong direction, jam up machines, or appear unsightly. After the heads are sliced off (the fish were killed by pneumatic gun after being pulled out of the pens), the bodies are sliced in half, the fins and bones are removed, the skin is descaled, and leftover bones are picked out by a platoon of workers. The workers (many of them are from the Philippines and Romania and were hired on guest worker programs) look a little grim: The noise in the plant is deafening, the air chilly, and the gorgeous weather outside a fantasy for workers on twelve-hour shifts, but these are valuable jobs, and the premises are exactingly clean. There is hardly any of the fishy smell one might expect with a fishmonger or fish factory.
    Later that evening, two Cooke reps, Chuck Brown, the communications manager, and Michael Szemerda, a vice president at the location, sit down with Thierry and me over dinner. The seared salmon is among the best that I have ever tasted, smooth and free of fishy tang. The flesh is a pleasing pink, due to a food-coloring carotenoid called canthaxanthin that is added to farmed salmon feed (and also chicken feed, to give an orange pigment to egg yolk and chicken fat). Wild salmon are additive-free, obtaining their carotenoids from krill. Chuck and Michael acknowledge that their business model is not perfect and that better environmental measures have to be instituted. Monterey Bay Aquarium and SeaChoice, a Canadian seafood program, issue three levels of recommendations for seafood: Green = Best Choice, Yellow = Some Concern, Red = Avoid. Atlantic salmon is labeled Red: Avoid. The decision disappoints Michael, who grumbles, “They try to paint everything with the same brush. Some of the reasons why they mark you as Red have absolutely nothing to do with us. Someone in Chile grows Atlantic salmon, which is not something that’s native to Chile, but Atlantic salmon is native to the east coast of Canada! Everyone gets a