I got an alert in my email box today from Food and Water Watch saying that Obama may be electing Republican Senator Judd Gregg to the office and postion of Secretary of Commerce. However, according to Food and Water Watch, Mr. Gregg is an advocate of offshore AQUACULTURE. Yet another "hm need to look this up" term. So this is what my friend wikipedia said:
"is the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms including molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Unlike fishing, aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, implies the cultivation of aquatic populations under controlled conditions."
Photo of an operation in Chile:
The TAKE ACTION initiative said:
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is promoting open ocean aquaculture as a way to reduce the country’s $9.2 billion seafood trade deficit and ease pressures on decimated wild marine fish populations. The government has spent more than $25 million supporting four experimental fish farms, as well as research into this technology, which involves growing tens of thousands of fish in cages anchored to the seafloor between three and 200 miles off the U.S. coast. The government wants to open public waters for the potential construction of thousands of these cages.
Despite this substantial financial and political support, open ocean aquaculture has not been shown to be environmentally sustainable, financially viable, or technically possible on a commercial scale. Each of the four taxpayer-supported experimental operations––in Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Puerto Rico––continues to be plagued by problems. Cages and other equipment have broken, fish have died on a large scale, and sharks have threatened workers. At one aquaculture facility, each pound of fish sold costs about $3,000 in U.S. taxpayer money to produce."
To learn more and get TONS more resources check out this link!
So, do you think Food and Water Watch has a point, should we say NO to Senator Gregg?
If not, why not?
