Summary

The story presented by CBS recently is a great illustration on why no one outside the industry seems to be aware of our growing crisis. Unfortunately food production, fisheries and more directly the farmed salmon industry does not garner the headlines. Well not yet,  although they do at times, when it is not a crisis but a catastrophe. I believe we could be close to that catastrophe. The population needs to start paying closer attention to the ever worsening developments in our food chain.

Analysis

We find contradiction and misinformation as well as interpretation and misinterpretation running rampant. We see, finally CBS noticing a "growing problem" in Chile, where have they been? But just as I am about to chastise the network, we see a newly published article on the rebounding good heath of the Chilean farmed salmon industry. SalmonChile contends there are symptoms of recovery in the salmon farming sector, following the sanitary crisis caused by the outbreak of the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus, which first struck the industry in 2007. You think this could be a bit "self serving", well I sure do.
 
This is a crisis  years in the making, and more diseases are now infecting  fish stocks in southern regions that heretofore have been free of all disease. ISA is only one of these. SOTA is another agency in Florida that continuously states that the disease problems are behind them and the industry is on the path of renewal. Again, I don't think so. It is a billion dollar industry and very important to the Country and much is at stake, we get that. But false optimism is creating an atmosphere of distrust that can only retard that growth, when and if it begins anew.  

We now start to see this crisis and its ramifications being splashed in the network, but it seems the message is now taking a severe hit with the industry discounting their problems. Does the farmed salmon effect the wild, is the disease endemic, does all the antibiotics and chemicals used impact not only the immediate area but the humans that consume these fish. These are some of the problems highlighted in the reports we see, but the industry must address these, before declaring victory on other problems. I don't believe it, and I am sure as more consumers are exposed to the truth, where ever that lies, they will not believe it either.

Let us not gloss over the real issues here, that has been done and it has failed, lets solve these issues and get on the correct path to renewing the health of this one industry at least. In case you have not noticed, the price of salmon has gone up............wonder why?

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Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.