Eating salmon with a clear conscience

By Linn Therese Hosteland 

A recent headline in the Norwegian local newspaper Bergens Tidende, claimed that "Soya for Norwegian salmon is stealing land in Brasil". The article written by Mari Gjengedal, director of environmental and development organization Spire, co-written with Solveig Lygre, argues: "Salmon are increasingly eating soya that is neither short-travelled, healthy nor sustainable." “Instead of using marine resources, we now occupy large areas of land that could be used to grow human food. Thus the salmon are not becoming more sustainable, quite the contrary,” they write. At first sight the environmentalists appear to have a point. Soya protein concentrate (SPC) amounted to 24% of the ingredients in Ewos’s feeds in 2013, for example, and most of this comes from the Brazilian regions of Mato Grosso, Parana, Gioas, Minas Gerais and Bahia. Responsibly-sourced soya However, Ewos CEO, Einar Wathne, observes that the company is very much aware of the challenges in these areas. “Therefore, all soya in the diet we stock to Norwegian farmed salmon is certified,” he says. There are currently two main standards for certification of sustainable soya production, Proterra and RTRS (Round Table Responsible Soy) – organizations established to ensure that the production of soya causes no negative ecological consequences, such as forest destruction and reduction of biodiversity – and these certification schemes are recognized by several environmental organizations, including WWF. “Gjengedal argues that spaces the size of Vestfold county have been seized to cultivate soya in Brazil. Vestfold is huge, but salmon consume only 0.4 per cent of the world’s soya production,” says Wathne. “It is also important to point out that, although feed manufacturers import soya protein concentrate for salmon feed, so the market for farmed salmon is global – almost all Norwegian salmon is exported. In 2013, Norway exported salmon to almost 100 countries worldwide. Therefore it does not provide an accurate picture to compare land use with the geographical size of Norway. The aquaculture industry is very much a global industry,” he adds.

Feed conversion The CEO agrees that it is costly to produce animal protein. “The most effective use of resources for the planet would be for the entire world population to be vegetarians. This is not the case, however, and compared with other forms of food production, salmon performs very well when it comes to effective soya utilization,” he says. Admittedly a higher total of the SPC consumed in Norway goes towards aquaculture than towards animal feeds – 360,000 tonnes compared to 205,000 tonnes in 2013. “However,” Wathne explains, “salmon convert feed to meat more efficiently than land animals do. In 2013 Norwegian aquaculture produced 1,165,954 tonnes of salmon, while Norwegian agriculture produced 338,666 tonnes of meat together. Put another way: aquaculture produced about 3.2 tonnes of fish for each tonne of soya used, while agriculture produced approximately 1.65 tonnes of meat for each tonne of soya.”

Marine alternatives Wathne also says that, although salmon are very efficient at converting plant protein, marine protein is more desirable and Ewos currently has several projects running which aim to obtain alternative sources of marine raw materials. “Among other things we are working with Hordafor to use trimmings and bycatch from fisheries – valuable resources that are currently thrown overboard, but have great potential as feed ingredients. 30 per cent of marine raw materials in Ewos feed comes from trimmings – ie a clean recycling of fish that are not suitable for human consumption and that would otherwise be thrown into the sea. We are working hard to leverage even more of this amazing raw material,” he says. “Tunicates are another possibility and we are studying, together with UNI-Research, to obtain more of the valuable marine protein for our feeds. While we work with these new sources, certified soya provides a sustainable and effective alternative,” he argues.

Quality “So, one can ask – what happens when salmon eat soya? Is it a vegetable? No, contrary to what one might think, a salmon is not what it eats. A salmon that eats soya protein concentrate becomes a salmon, and even a salmon that contains omega-3,” he points out. He adds that, as a consequence of the percentage of vegetable content in the feed increasing, levels of marine omega-3 in salmon may have reduced in recent years, but that there is still more omega-3 in farmed salmon than in virtually any other source. “Salmon is still one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and for many the main source of omega-3. In addition, it can be enjoyed with a clear environmental conscience!” Wathne concludes.