Wild Salmon:

Go Wild -- At the Fish Counter

by Randy Hartnell
Courtesy of Vital Choice Seafood

It’s a common question. Why buy wild salmon when farmed salmon is cheaper? And it's easy to answer.

Wild salmon is healthier for people and the environment—two key advantages over farm-raised salmon and most other protein sources. I don’t say that because I fish for salmon—since I don't anymore. (After college, I bought a boat and spent the next 20 summers fishing Alaskan waters for wild sockeye salmon.) And you needn't take my word for it.

Independent research and news reports continually confirm the advantages of wild salmon over farmed. As Business Week Online* said this year: "Farm-raised fish have more total fat than their wild counterparts, and their ratio of good, omega-3 fats to bad, saturated fats is much lower. Why is this? Wild fish aren't fattened on fish meal, corn, or soy pellets. Instead, they hunt down their food, which makes them leaner and by most accounts tastier. Wild fish are also not dosed with antibiotics as their cousins are down on the fish farm." ("When It Comes to Fish, Go Wild," by Kate Murphy, January 27, 2003). And, as USA Today reported recently: "A number of respected sources, including nutrition expert Andrew Weil, M.D. and The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, state that farmed salmon have two to three times fewer omega-3's than their wild counterparts.

Meanwhile, the fat content of farmed fish ranges between 11 percent and 20 percent vs. 7 percent for wild. There are serious environmental issues associated with salmon farming as well. The spread of highly infectious, mutating salmon diseases, large-scale environmental pollution and the escape of millions of non-native fish from salmon-farm operations are all ongoing problems that alarm scientists." ("Farmed salmon can't beat wild," by Nick Jans, October 6, 2002.)

You'll find more information about the benefits of wild salmon on our Web site's Vital Choice Advantage page. And, you'll find links to the reports I've mentioned here—plus many more reports on salmon and Omega-3s—on our site's Vital News page.

Once you try wild salmon you will be hooked. You’ll also help preserve your health, wild salmon, and the ocean’s precious web of life. Bon appetit!

Editor's note: We consider organic whole foods from both plant and animal kingdoms to be a major key to superior health. We also think it's terribly important to eat fish at least twice a week to get the essential fatty acids. Here at our house, we only eat wild Alaskan salmon and other wild seafoods from our friends at Vital Choice. Click here to visit Vital Choice Seafood.