Over the past five years, I have written a series of detailed, open letters to Dr. David Suzuki in which I have tried to express my concerns, opinions and questions about the information that David Suzuki and his foundation have been providing to the public about farmed salmon, and salmon farming.
I am particularly concerned about the misinformation that has been disseminated about PCBs in farmed salmon, and how this has been specifically targeted at pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and young children. As a nutritionist with a decade of experience working in maternal and infant nutrition for UNICEF, I know how hard it is to get pregnant women to eat fish - let alone when scientists and trusted, well-respected organizations are telling them not to.
As I have described in Packard's Push Against B.C. Salmon, the campaign to "reform" aquaculture is being funded as part of a sophisticated marketing campaign to prop up the market for commercial fisheries, especially from Alaska. Over the past decade, the Packard foundation has poured more than $90 million into this campaign. That included funds to initiate the Farmed and Dangerous campaign, through Tides Canada. (See: Marine Protection or Market Protection?)
My over-arching question is this: To what extent has the David Suzuki Foundation deliberately manufactured and fomented controversy over farmed salmon as part of this well-funded, marketing strategy to prop up demand for Alaskan "wild" fish by depositioning and demarketing the competing product: imported, farmed salmon? In other words, is scaring consumers and retailers away from farmed fish part and parcel of a marketing strategy for "wild" fish, especially from Alaska?
Here are the letters that I have sent to Dr. Suzuki since May of 2007:
- Letter #14, May 31, 2011 RE: My appeal to David Suzuki to please clear up the miscommunication about research findings on PCBs and farmed salmon, and sea lice, and to please, fully disclose American sources of funding.
- Letter #15 April 16, 2012: My appeal to David Suzuki to please clear up the miscommunication about research findings on PCBs and farmed salmon, and sea lice, and to please fully disclose his foundatin's American funding.
E-mail correspondence:
- e-mail #1 of January 20, 2011 RE: U.S. Funding to the David Suzuki Foundation
- e-mail #2 of January 20, 2011 RE: 20 press releases and web-pages removed from the web-site of the David Suzuki Foundation
- e-mail January 21, 2011 RE: Funding for the brochure, "Why You Shouldn't Eat Farmed Salmon"
- e-mail March 14, 2011 RE: a heads-up about the op-ed, "David Suzuki's Fish Story"
- e-mail March 23, 2011 RE: when the brochure, "Why You Shouldn't Eat Farmed Salmon" was taken off-line.
- e-mail March 25, 2011 RE: request for my phone call to be returned
- e-mail March 25, 2010 RE: new web-pages posted since the spring of 2010
- e-mail April 8, 2011: Salmon Farming in B.C.: Then and Now
- e-mail April 8, 2011: 204 visits to my blog from the David Suzuki Foundation
- e-mail May 23, 2011: Sea Lice Research from the David Suzuki Foundation
- e-mail May 23, 2011: The Ezra Levant Show, Friday May 20, 2011
- e-mail May 24, 2011: Revenues of the David Suzuki Foundation: $81 Million (2000-2010)
- e-mail May 24, 2011: $US 10 Million from USA Foundations
- e-mail May 25, 2011: 16 Web-pages REMOVED on Feb. 3 & 4, 2010
- e-mail May 31, 2011: My Appeal to David Suzuki. For my open letter, click here.
- e-mail June 1, 2011: My op-ed in FP & a request to meet with Dr. Suzuki
- e-mail June 3, 2011: My response to the article that the David Suzuki Foundation posted at its web-site.
- e-mail June 7, 2011: Request to please ammend the web-site of the David Suzuki Foundation to note that I am self-funded. I am not "on the dime" of anyone.
- e-mail June 20, 2011 RE: YouTube (cc to James Hoggan).
Please note: This post has not been up-dated with e-mails sent since June 2012.
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