Safeway to feel the heat over farmed salmon

The anti farm lobby in the United States is targeting the Safeway Grocery store chain for an aggressive advertising campaign, designed to urge its shoppers to take a pass on farmed fish.

With an advertisement placed in last Sunday's edition of the New York Times, (which is perhaps the most read newspaper on the planet) The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform is hoping to hit Safeway where it will most hurt at the check out tills.

The Daily News took a look at controversial strategy and included a link to the ad that has caused all the fuss.

Anti fish farm ads take aim at grocery chain
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, July 06, 2007

The Safeway grocery company has been the target of heavy campaigning recently by anti-fish farming groups highlighting the alleged shortcomings of open net-cage salmon farming.

The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) placed an ad in the Sunday edition of the New York Times last week, calling for Safeway International to live up to its claims of corporate social responsibility by ending the sale of farmed salmon in its stores.

The "Ingredients for Extinction" ad plays off Safeway's own "Ingredients for Life" branding, and is part of the CAAR's "Smarten Up Safeway" campaign, which has been heavily applauded by anti-fish farming groups in Canada, particularly Friends of Wild Salmon.

"Increasing pressure on Safeway and others to stop selling farmed fish is an important step in stopping the expansion of fish farms to the North Coast and encouraging sustainable practices where fish farms do exist," said Gerald Amos, chair of Friends of Wild Salmon.

CAAR has been in discussion with Safeway Canada and Safeway International for more than a year now, and while Safeway executives acknowledge the problems associated with open net-cage salmon farming, thus far they have not implement changes in their purchasing practices, said CAAR.

CAAR, made up of nine conservation groups, First Nations and scientists, decided to target U.S. consumers as more than 80 per cent of B.C. farmed salmon is sold in the U.S. market. The ad identified several of the free' additions to their Safeway bought salmon, including the death of marine mammals and wild salmon, the endangerment of coastal communities, and the tons of feces that is released into ocean waters.

"We placed this ad in the New York Times to speak directly to Safeway customers and consumers of farmed salmon, and we hope they will join us in helping to create the shift to a more sustainable aquaculture industry, one that does not threaten the very survival of our wild salmon, " said Catherine Stewart of the Living Oceans Society. "There have been faxes sent to Safeway in the U.S. in the thousands so far, and I think it's really raised awareness across the U.S. in consumers."

At the moment, Safeway is engaged in discussion through the Food Marketing Institute in the U.S., which has set up an aquaculture working group to oversee the issue, but so far this is the only step the company has taken. However, CAAR says it is far from done.

"We'll continue to keep the pressure up in a variety of ways," said Stewart. "I won't go into detail about what those will be, but we'll continue to be in dialogue with Marine Harvest. We have a marine research program on sealife and the technical and economic feasibility of closed containment. And we'll be pursuing ongoing discussions with the provincial and federal government around the need for change in marine aquaculture practices."

CAAR does not feel that adjusting current regulations or net-cage operations will solve the problem. They have taken the firm stance that the only way to protect marine environments and wild salmon stocks is the total separation of farmed fish from the marine environment, whether it be ocean or land based closed facilities.

To view CAAR's New York Times ad, check out http://www.livingoceans.org/ , or for information visit http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/.

Calls to Safeway's head office were not returned by press time.