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Farmed salmon. (Photo Credit: FIS)
AWG proposes changes into organic acquaculture recommendations
(UNITED STATES, 4/8/2014)
The Livestock Committee of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory body of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to receive public comments on their spring 2014 proposals, published on Regulations.org, until 8 April.
The Board’s recommendations for the allowances of the use in organic aquaculture production of the synthetic substances had been petitioned a year ago.
This issue was discussed at the NOSB’s conference on aquaculture last year in Nashville Tennessee (US) after considering Wegmans Food Markets’ success at selling European Union organic salmon in the mid-Atlantic region, which the USDA accepted as long as it did not use the USDA Organic label.
The National Organic Aquaculture Working Group (NOAWG), chaired by George S. Lockwood, expressed their comments to the recommendations regarding their petitions for the allowance of certain synthetic substances in the production of organic aquatic animals and plants.
The NOAWG supports the use of tocopherols, vitamins and minerals for aquatic animals, and the use of micronutrients for aquatic plants, lignin sulfonate and vitamins for aquatic plants as they have been proposed.
In addition, they request that certain other recommendations be amended as follows:
- Chlorine for aquatic animals: since culture water is sometimes disinfected with chlorine and then de-chlorinated prior to the introduction of aquatic animals, NOAWG requests including the disinfection and sanitization of culture water.
- Biologics for aquatic animals: NOAWG suggests that the use of vaccines should be encouraged for both terrestrial livestock and aquatic animals, especially in the case of small aquatic farmers who cannot afford the very expensive antibiotics. Therefore, NOAWG requests deleting the annotation “except those produced with excluded methods” until, at least, it also applies to terrestrial livestock.
- Carbon dioxide for aquatic plants: NOAWG considers this annotation must be deleted, since it can be confusing and unclear to those in aquaculture. All aquatic plants and animals produced in culture are contained somehow, or else they would be in the wild and not considered aquaculture. Or perhaps this annotation could be replaced by: “for use in containers, such as tanks and ponds, that are constructed of impervious materials.”
- Chlorine for aquatic plants: NOAWG requests amending this recommended annotation to include the disinfection and sanitization of culture water as well.
Lockwood informed the NOSB Spring 2014 Meeting takes place from 29 April to 2 May, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas (US).
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media
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