The salmon on Toronto plates starts somewhere far uglier: a global fishmeal trade tied to pollution, labour abuse, overfishing and hunger in poor countries, a major investigation reports.
Peru's anchoveta fleet — the world's top source of fish oil and meal — sucks up tiny fish off Lima while El Niño scrambles the seas. That meal feeds farmed salmon sold in Canada, but the benefits flow one way: depleted local waters, precarious deckhands, and coastal villages priced out of their own protein.
Toronto loves a $14 salmon poke bowl. Few ask what the salmon ate — or who paid for it. Cheap farmed fish has a hidden ledger, and the people balancing it live half a world away.
Eating consciously here means asking the fish counter one question: farmed on what? The answer tells you everything.
Sources: CBC News / Outlaw Ocean reporting. Context from the Young Hadene newsroom.
Investigations tie it to pollution, abused deckhands, overfishing and local food insecurity in producer countries.
Ask what farmed fish was fed on — and treat rock-bottom prices as a warning sign.