As someone who doesn’t eat meat, one of my favourite sources of protein is salmon. I pretty much eat it on a daily basis.

I’ve always steered clear of farmed salmon, preferring fish from the wild. I’ve just read too much about the fish-farming practices to trust eating them.

But it seems that some of the problems inherent in fish farms in BC have now spread to the wild salmon population. And the Canadian government, in particular the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), are doing their best to keep this from you and me.

To hear it told in a recently watched documentary, most of the fish farms in BC are located in channels surrounding the SW coast of BC and Vancouver Island. These farms are pouring out disease and pathogens into the channels. Wild salmon migrating through channels then contract these impurities, thought to be the cause of the recent disappearance of over 10 million salmon in 2009.

The most serious of these diseases is something called Infectious Salmon Anemia virus, or ISA — often called salmon flu. This disease was imported from Europe by salmon farms purchasing eggs, mostly from Norway.

Despite two world-renowned experts testing for and finding the ISA virus in fish stocks in BC, the DFO refuses to acknowledge it exists. In fact, it has done everything in its powers to prevent this information from becoming public knowledge.

Biologists in BC have even gone to the extent of purchasing frozen Atlantic salmon farmed in BC from local supermarkets. They found a high incidence of ISA virus in these store-bought fish!

So why would a Canadian government agency not want to investigate the existence of a virus that has killed millions of BC’s wild salmon stock? After all, the salmon fishery and all its economic spin-off is a huge part of the west coast economy. And then there are the Canadian and international consumers of BC salmon that are consuming diseased fish.

Again, follow the money.

It turns out the ISA virus is the equivalent of Mad Cow disease. A country reporting ISA will immediately have its border shutdown and no salmon exports would be allowed. And who is at greatest risk should this happen? Fish farms and their export markets of China and the US.

It is a tragedy that our food supply managed solely as a function of money. Product quality and consumer safety are secondary to the interests of the multi-national food companies.

The message — NEVER eat farmed salmon, or any farmed fish. Shop for and eat only wild salmon.

And now I’m ticked that one of my favourite food sources is at risk. Are you?