Í mörg ár hafa allir bestu matreiðslumeistarar Íslands verið með okkur í baráttunni gegn opnu sjókvíaeldi á laxi.
Hér er bréf sem var að birtast frá breiðfylkingu kollega þeirra í öðrum löndum. Fleiri en 120 stjörnukokkar, þar af fleiri en 90 sem eru með Michelin stjörnur, skrifa undir bréfið.
Sjókvíaeldi á laxi er úrelt og óboðleg aðferð við matvælaframleiðslu. Þetta er iðnaður sem veldur óafturkræfum skaða á lífríki og fer hræðilega með eldisdýrin sín.
To our fellow chefs
Nobody ordered this.
Salmon was once cooked seasonally. Wild salmon returned from the sea to rivers in such numbers that the water seemed alive with them. Yet since the 1970s, many wild salmon populations have collapsed by 80 percent or more.
Wild Atlantic salmon in particular could disappear in our lifetime.
The loss is easy to miss. Salmon has never seemed more abundant. But this abundance is manufactured, and it comes at a great cost. Today, ninety-nine percent of Atlantic salmon served in restaurants and supermarkets are raised in industrial sea cages, often in the same waters wild salmon must pass through to survive.
Ocean-farmed salmon has become one of the greatest threats to wild salmon’s future.
Because these crowded cages are open, they pollute surrounding waters; waste does not stay contained. Nor do sea lice parasites, disease, or chemical treatments.
Sea lice spread from farms to vulnerable young wild salmon. When nets break, farmed fish escape and breed with wild salmon, weakening the genetic inheritance they depend on to survive.
The impact extends beyond the cages. Feeding one ocean-farmed salmon requires hundreds of ground-up wild fish that marine life and subsistence communities depend on.
Then there is the product itself. Its colour is synthetic, engineered to match the pink we expect, and it is often marketed with unjustified claims of sustainability.
Ocean-farmed salmon should never have existed at this scale. Not when the cost is wild salmon and all that depends on them.
Empty rivers mean less food for eagles and otters — and traditions lost before they can be passed down.
Communities seeing these effects firsthand are already taking a stand. Chefs can, too. We commit to not serving ocean-farmed salmon unless the industry can operate without causing this harm. And we are asking chefs and restaurants around the world to join us.
Our decisions shape what diners value, what suppliers prioritise, and ultimately which foods — and species — survive.
Every menu is a choice about what belongs on our tables. Ocean-farmed salmon does not — not as long as it continues to cause this kind of harm.