translated from Spanish: #NoALaSalmonicultura: the campaign of the chefs Argentine not to follow the example of Chile

With a campaign through social network called #NoALaSalmonicultura, recognized figures gastronomic argentinas rejected the adoption of the method for the reproduction of salmon in Tierra del Fuego, specifically in channel B Eagle. Names such as Mauro Colagreco, winner of three Michelin stars, or Narda Lepes, Cook and host argentina, joined the campaign.
Initiative is framed in Innovation Norway – State company of Norway talks–with Minister of agroindustry María Luis Etchevehere, in March of last year. This time the Argentine Government pledged to promote cooperation between both administrations through an agreement, in order to generate a sustainable aquaculture industry.
“I don’t want to end up as Chile” “the environmental, social and economic cost of salmon production has devastating and irreversible consequences”, reads the message placed in the account of several of the chefs on Instagram.
“Unfortunately we have the example of our Chilean brothers. “The consequences of the introduction of the industry and of the species in Chilean waters are and have been many we do not know where to start to transmit them”, say.
The comments refer to a series of controversies that have been against the practice in Chile. The last week of December of 2018 an escape of hundreds of copies of salmon was generated in the region of Los Lagos, in one of the facilities of the salmon glaciers.
This same company, along with Mowi, filed a claim of illegality with the Court of appeals by the decision issued by the Council for transparency that forced both companies to release information about the use of antibiotics in its productions of salmon the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The accusations are not only by Argentine gourmets. The Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) has commented on several occasions harms associated with salmon farming in the Chilean coasts. Marine dead zones, chemical waste and damage to the close social groups would be some of the reasons for increasing the regulation into practice.
In fact, chefs say that for years they decided to remove the salmon of their letters have lead, dyes and chemicals.
The campaign joined also chefs such as Fernando Trocca, Germán Martitegui, Leandro Lele Cristobal, Aldo Graziani, Tomás Kalika, Fernando Mayoral, Malvina Gehle (Green Bamboo), Nicolás Piatti (Hotel Hilton Bogota), Sebastian La Rocca (established in Costa Rica) and Daniele Pinna (Locanda).
Response to the campaign, the campaign has also generated responses from the community in favor of the practice. Lucas Maglio, engineer farmer and Kran Executive, published an open letter to the visible faces of the initiative in his twitter. It replicates the points exposed by Mauro Colagreco the instagram.
He argued that, while the salmon is an exotic species to the Argentine environment, so also they were cows, horses and chickens at the time. “Therefore we should do now a #NoALaGanadería campaign,” quipped the engineer.
Regarding the environmental impact and use of antibiotics, Maglio replied that aquaculture not only requires the same type of care veterinarians that – one of great posts on the Argentine economy – livestock, but it is less harmful to the environment in General.
“I tell you that a cow requires between 10 to 15 kilos of food to produce a kilo of meat, which are also raw materials that were planted in fields that displaced forests or natural forests and plants which, in turn, were treated with herbicides and pesticides” described the farmer in the letter. While he compared the case with the salmon: “You can reach efficiencies of 1 to 1, i.e. a kilo a kilo of fish food”.

Original source in Spanish