What Is Your Opinion

[rmamechanic]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39265727/ns/health-food_safety/?gt1=43001
Just my opinion but one comparison I would make is in lumber. When Warehouser started planting the fast growing pine the quality of lumber seemed to me to deteriorate.
Because it grows so fast, I would be of the opinion that the meat from this fish would not be as firm or tasty as the wild fish.
Although information about the breeding of the fish are sketchy, it appears that they have simply developed an eating machine from using genes from another fish, so it would not trouble me to try eating it.

[Popster]

I worry what the farming operation will do to the wild fish.

[CaptNemo]

They should take whatever process used to grow that salmon and give it to chick who want big boobs, they would grow huge, but still be real...The best of BOTH worlds, and thats what i think about that.

[hackeyfly]

Remember Jurassic Park? Sure, it was a movie from a fictional novel, but the theory was sound. Nature will find a way, these freaks will escape and breed with the wild population, or out compete them, just so we can have cheap salmon. Personally, I think that price is too high.
Pat in Joppa

[Alley Cat]

It may just be my taste, but to me farm raised salmon is poor eating.

[goose70]

I have to confess that I cannot tell the difference between farmed raised and wild Atlantic Salmon. I also really enjoy farm-raised Turbot, which you can get in a relatively inexpensive frozen meal (microwavable in 7-8 minutes) at Trader Joe's! In fact, I eat one farmed-raised Atlantic Salmon and one farmed-raised Turbot meal each week. I also have one whole-wheat pasta-pesto meal (all farmed, of course) with a side of farm-raised mussels (frozen in a box - nuke them for just 3-4 minutes) each week. That gets supplemented by one weekly meal of good 'ol Jeff-caught Perch/Rock/Blues during most of the year, or either wild Halibut, Sokeye or Arctic Char during the winter and early Spring. So I'm heavily dependant on aquaculture and agriculture, like the other 6 billion people.

I don't know enough to have an opinion on the safety, etc. of farmed-raised seafood. What seems clear, however, is that if we are to feed our population, we have no choice but to make aquaculture (and agriculture) work more and more efficiently. Whether this genetically altered hormonal process the the way to do that, I have no idea. But I'll bet that aquaculture is far less resource-intense than land-animal agriculture, and the resulting product is healtheir.

[rmamechanic]

:clapping2::clapping2::clapping2::clapping2::yes:
They should take whatever process used to grow that salmon and give it to chick who want big boobs, they would grow huge, but still be real...The best of BOTH worlds, and thats what i think about that.

[jnashed]

To me the problem is not the genetically engineered vs. "natural' It is farm raised vs. wild caught. Aquaculture may be the only thing we as a species can do to save our food needs but farm raised salmon has problems that other farm raised fish do not. The problem is not in farming itself but where they are being armed. In the Pacific NW slamon fish farms are done in the same water that native salmon live. These farmed slamon living in tight spaces get more diseases which spread to native salmon, and many salmon escape which leads to aggresive competition of a nonnative atlantic salmon with the native. So salmon farming is a negative. Farm raised salmon have a higher fat contaent from less activity. Wild salmon live in the ocean with currents and chase after meals so they have more muscle less fat. tilapia and catfish and even trout are exapmles of fish that are successfully farm raised with limited environmental inpact. These fish are kept usually in contained areas.

The genetic engeneeirng thing is a whole different question. Any domesticated animal is essentially gentically engeneered. Is you Chesapeake bay retriever anything like the wolf it originalted from? It just took years of seletive breeding to accomplish instead of months of testtube work. Same concept to me though. We have done the same with cattle, chickens, corn, wheat, etc. for ages. We can be snotty and say we think there is a difference but there is not. Nature does it too. Maybe just maybe the next generation of rockfish will have immunity to myco if all the infected ones die off prior to breeding maybe the only ones left that bred are resistant. Maybe....

[rmamechanic]

I have to confess that I cannot tell the difference between farmed raised and wild Atlantic Salmon. I also really enjoy farm-raised Turbot, which you can get in a relatively inexpensive frozen meal (microwavable in 7-8 minutes) at Trader Joe's! In fact, I eat one farmed-raised Atlantic Salmon and one farmed-raised Turbot meal each week. I also have one whole-wheat pasta-pesto meal (all farmed, of course) with a side of farm-raised mussels (frozen in a box - nuke them for just 3-4 minutes) each week. That gets supplemented by one weekly meal of good 'ol Jeff-caught Perch/Rock/Blues during most of the year, or either wild Halibut, Sokeye or Arctic Char during the winter and early Spring. So I'm heavily dependant on aquaculture and agriculture, like the other 6 billion people.

I don't know enough to have an opinion on the safety, etc. of farmed-raised seafood. What seems clear, however, is that if we are to feed our population, we have no choice but to make aquaculture (and agriculture) work more and more efficiently. Whether this genetically altered hormonal process the the way to do that, I have no idea. But I'll bet that aquaculture is far less resource-intense than land-animal agriculture, and the resulting product is healtheir.

Perhaps it is the idea that we use water for cleaning, but I agree that aquaculture is probably more safe than agriculture. I remember when I was in construction I was on a job by the DOA in Beltsville and next to the job was a cornfield with huge ears of corn. In passing an agriculture truck stopped and I went over to talk to the guy. During our conversation he mentioned that a person would starve eating that corn because it was experimental and had almost no nutritional value. He could have been pulling my leg but I doubt it because there has been a tremendous amount of experimenting with corn in the past 40 years. Oops giving away my age again.

[uncljohn]

You can easily taste the diff betw farmed salmon and wild. Wild salmon is almost dry in taste and texture, while farm-raised is incredibly moist and almost melts in the mouth. So which is better?.....hmmmm.

What gets me about salmon in the stores is the orange dye they add to it. Ever unwrapped a previously frozen piece of salmon and the plastic wrap is orange in color? Yuck!

I could care less if it is genetically altered to increase the growth rate. Noone is allergic to the growth gene. But the potential of them escaping into the wild and outcompeting the native fish is troubling.

[goose70]

The farm-raised salmon that I buy has that melt-in-your-mouth, buttery flavor, too. But I've also had a few of the dry pieces that you describe. It's almost like canned tuna. I agree, gross. I always assumed the difference was from the processing/packeging.

[Popster]

In "The End Of The Line" it was pointed out that the alewife, etc used to produce food for the farm raised salmon led to a negative balance as far as fish stocks were concerned.

[uncljohn]

The farm-raised salmon that I buy has that melt-in-your-mouth, buttery flavor, too. But I've also had a few of the dry pieces that you describe. It's almost like canned tuna. I agree, gross. I always assumed the difference was from the processing/packeging.

Or a difference in how the Mrs cooked it. Fortunately (I think) I do all the cooking in my house, so I know its not the cook's fault....haha!

[Popster]

To me the problem is not the genetically engineered vs. "natural' It is farm raised vs. wild caught. Aquaculture may be the only thing we as a species can do to save our food needs but farm raised salmon has problems that other farm raised fish do not. The problem is not in farming itself but where they are being armed. In the Pacific NW slamon fish farms are done in the same water that native salmon live. These farmed slamon living in tight spaces get more diseases which spread to native salmon, and many salmon escape which leads to aggresive competition of a nonnative atlantic salmon with the native. So salmon farming is a negative. Farm raised salmon have a higher fat contaent from less activity. Wild salmon live in the ocean with currents and chase after meals so they have more muscle less fat. tilapia and catfish and even trout are exapmles of fish that are successfully farm raised with limited environmental inpact. These fish are kept usually in contained areas.



In addition, farm raised are white in color. Growers pick the color of the dyed food from a color wheel to change the color to look natural. That dye may be linked to changes in the liver and brain once ingested.

[CSLUG]

All you have to do is ask 1 simple question.

Why are they doing this?

Is it to give us a better quality of fish? More nutrious? better tasting? Cheaper?

No. It's so they can make more money by reducing costs.

[Slim Shady]

You can easily taste the diff between farmed salmon and wild. Wild salmon is almost dry in taste and texture, while farm-raised is incredibly moist and almost melts in the mouth. So which is better?.....hmmmm..

I agree that Wild Caught (WC) Salmon tends to be drier, but only if cooked as you would farm raised salmon. If you remove the WC salmon from the grill a little sooner, it doesn't get dry and is much better tasting than farm raised. IMHO


What gets me about salmon in the stores is the orange dye they add to it. Ever unwrapped a previously frozen piece of salmon and the plastic wrap is orange in color? Yuck!

The orange coloring in farm raised salmon comes from a food additive. I have also heard and read, that the amount/quality of Omega 3 oil found in farm raised fish doesn't compare as well with WC salmon. I don't think that farm raised salmon have the ability to spend much time in deep water like a wild salmon.