You may recall a number of stories I posted last year, warning you about the unhealthy and fake wild salmon stocked in grocery stores. The Pure Salmon Campaign, a Washington, D.C. environmental group has petitioned the FTC to investigate health-harming ads by a salmon industry association that appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Salmon of the Americas, an organization representing about 90 percent of the total salmon production in North and South America, paid for a six-page spread last fall that made great claims about the benefits of consuming farmed salmon for pregnant mothers and their babies, of course, neglecting to remind readers about the dangers of the mercury present in fish.

The group went so far as to feature an image of a pregnant woman with the outrageous caption, "Ocean-farmed salmon. Just what the doctor ordered."

Even worse, a number of international bird conservationists believe chicken feces as well as pig and duck waste has been used to feed farm-raised fish. Another good reason to avoid salmon you see in grocery stores, unless you verify it's been lab-tested and free of contaminants.

Pure Salmon Campaign.org

Yahoo News February 22, 2006