"A lot of folks can take credit for the improved market for wild salmon, from the California Salmon Council and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, to the chefs that revolted at serving farmed salmon, but the programs Packard (the David and Lucile Packard Foundation) helped fund played a big part in boosting our markets and no one in our industry should ever forget that.”
- Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations
Back in 2000, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation ("Packard") allocated $640,000 to Tides Canada for “start-up costs” and “the creation of a re-granting fund to support marine protection efforts in British Columbia.” In 2001, the year that the funds were actually paid, the Packard foundation also paid $346,500 to Tides Canada "for general support and for support of sustainable aquaculture in B.C." That same year, Tides Canada reported that "a dedicated funder" made it possible for the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (The Farmed & Dangerous Campaign) to do what limited funding would otherwise never have allowed: to meet on a monthly basis. Tides Canada has been asked but has declined to identify the “dedicated funder.”
U.S. tax returns show that the same year that Packard paid Tides Canada $640,000 for start-up costs for a re-granting fund, Packard also paid $50,000 to the Georgia Straight Alliance “for the strategic planning process and related activities on Salmon Aquaculture.”
The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) refers to the Farmed and Dangerous campaign as part of a "truth squad." ".... keeping up the pressure on salmon farmers with truth squads will help to open more markets for wild salmon," says the PCFFA.
The Farmed and Dangerous campaign is only one of the programs run by the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR). CAAR also has a program called Wild Salmon Supporters. This program promotes specific, high-end restaurants that sell wild salmon in major cities of the U.S. and Canada, for example, The Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit. Of all the things that CAAR could do to protect wild salmon, why is CAAR promoting high-end restaurants that sell wild salmon - most of which is Alaskan - in the U.S.? Is this protecting wild salmon? Or is this helping to protect the market for wild salmon?
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Is this true?
Posted by: William | 09/12/2011 at 05:13 PM
William,
Yes, worked briefly for John Duncan, the Conservative MP for the North Island, in the spring of 2010. About four weeks.
Cheers,
Vivian
Posted by: Vivian Krause | 09/29/2011 at 06:28 PM