The tipping point has been reached.
Reading this report from yesterday quantifies everything that is wrong with our approach to food.
You see, Salmon, used to be a seasonal food.
Much like other seasonal foods, it was enjoyed as a celebration of a particular time of year.
I remember this time as a child.
The salmon would return to Ireland to spawn…swimming furiously up the rivers to lay their eggs in dark, sometimes shallow, pools of freshwater, having survived a momentous journey across the Atlantic Ocean and into the fast, freshwater rivers of the west of Ireland.
It was easy enough to catch them, though not always legal, but then people rarely took more than they could eat or share.
We had no fridge in our tiny house and no freezer.
Barely standing room for parents and eleven children!
The salmon was a great supplement to a frugal diet and the men seemed to understand the value of the sacred fish, for they were regarded as such in the old ways.
The Salmon of Wisdom.
The Salmon of Knowledge.
There was a sense of compassion by the banks of the River Strule in Omagh.
An empathy even with this most magical of all fish… Fish Farms put an end to all this, injecting a venom of disconnect into the veins of human beings.
Greed over-ruled millennia of links between human and salmon.
This is what I have just read from yesterday’s paper…
The number of salmon killed by diseases at Scottish fish farms rose to more than 8.5 million last year.
New figures released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) reveal losses from all salmon farms have reached nearly 10% of production.
The main problem has been the spread of amoebic gill disease, blamed by some on the warmer seas caused by climate pollution.
In 2012, 13,627 tonnes of dead fish had to be disposed of by 230 fish farms along the west coast and on the islands, compared with 9717 tonnes in 2011 and 7159 tonnes in 2010.
This has raised questions about how such large amounts of diseased waste are safely disposed of, and how the process is regulated. Sepa and local authorities both say it is not their responsibility.
Anglers and environmentalists pin the blame on production methods and are demanding a halt to any expansion plans.
“It is clear from these massive mortality figures there are major problems,” said Hugh Campbell Adamson, the chairman of the Salmon and Trout Association in Scotland. “When a large number of fish are closely confined, the likelihood of endemic disease is greatly increased.”
Fish farmer Grieg Seafood declined to comment.
HeraldScotland
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/disease-deaths-on-salmon-farms-soar.20177714
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This unimaginable tragedy (because that’s what it is) had made me feel sombre.
I had a wonderful fish (an oriental carp) given to me years ago that lived in a tank.
It started off tiny but grew rapidly until it half filled the tank, at which point I sought a new home for it. Fortunately I was put in touch with a lovely local person who had a huge pond where it could go and live with others of it’s kind.
In the few months it was with us I learned how intelligent and social fish are and how they love to dance! yes, it’s true, they really do 🙂 We discovered that when we played music and danced in the living room (where the tank was situated), the fish would dance too in rhythm to the music and seemed to really enjoy itself. it was such a beautiful sight and perhaps the memory of that is what makes this seem so heartbreaking.
I knew there had been problems but had no idea of the enormity!
People become so dangerously dissociated don’t they.. when they detach from nature? We really do need to connect with it again in order to find our lost humanity.
I am sure we are meant to be care-takers in this world and not destructive forces.
Hope I’m not rambling too much…
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I suppose it’s a case of less is more really.
We, as a society, have become so demanding of Nature…demanding to eat what we feel like eating, as opposed to reclaiming our seasonal diet.
Nature can produce for us this way…seasonally.
What we, as a society, have done, is to put Nature on a 24/7 treadmill, demanding what can only be produced through force and destruction.
Once we wake up to this, we can begin to return to our seasonal food and leave Nature to provide, as she does, in a caring and loving way, thus re-establishing our relationship with her.
It is simple.
Regret for what we have done is not a positive energy.
We awaken and act.
It is our choice and our empowerment.
Blessings from all at Bealtaine Cottage
Colx
So sad.