If You Eat Salmon, You Should Read This

After shrimp and canned tuna, salmon is the most popular seafood in America.

All Atlantic salmon now—that is, the species is called “Atlantic” regardless of which ocean it comes from—is farmed. It’s tempting, eating-wise—it has a lot of fat, so it’s easy to cook well—but there are serious concerns about the impact raising it has on the environment, as there are with most kinds of aquaculture.

We published an article on Heated about the major pitfalls of farmed salmon. In it, Michael Scaturro documents the problems with salmon farming and the major havoc that it is currently wreaking on the environment in Scotland and beyond. The piece is below, and all I’ll say is that if you eat salmon (or are at all curious about how fish is farmed), you should check it out. (Obviously, in the pecking order of things currently endangering people and planet, fish is nowhere near the top, but it remains an interesting/important topic. Plus, we’re now in wild salmon season, so this is the best time to look beyond the farmed stuff.)