Australis has stark record of environmental destruction in Chile, according to complaint
Despite trading on a cute, pastoral image, Mama Bear salmon is sourced from a company operating at the bleeding edge of destructive industrial salmon farming, according to a federal lawsuit filed today. A Mama Bear purchaser is bringing a putative class action claiming that its marketing violates consumer protection laws. The plaintiff is represented by fair food system advocacy organization FarmSTAND and the law firms Pearson Warshaw, LLP and Jennings & Earley PLLC.
Mama Bear packaging and social media features a family of adorable cartoon bears. The packaging includes claims that the salmon products are “sustainably farm-raised” and “responsibly sourced.” According to the complaint filed in the Northern District of Illinois, a U.S. subsidiary of Chilean salmon giant Australis Seafoods that sells Mama Bear products labels the products “Sustainably Farm-Raised” because consumers believe such a product “does not cause indiscriminate damage to marine ecosystems or the environment.” The products sold under the widely-available brand, the complaint alleges, come from “industrially farmed salmon whose production inflicts grave harms on pristine marine ecosystems and resulted in the destruction of marine life in Chile and around the world.”
Mama Bear’s sole farmed salmon supplier, Australis, has been a major industrial aquaculture player in Chile in recent years. The complaint alleges it raises 74% of its salmon in legally designated nature reserves that should be protected, chronically violates its environmental permits through overproduction of salmon, and uses toxic pharmaceuticals and other substances which can flow into the water surrounding marine cages and harm marine life, including marine mammals.
The plaintiff claims Australis fails to prevent non-native, carnivorous salmon from escaping its net pens, which introduces new pathogens and diseases to local fish populations. On top of the environmental destruction inherent to the industrial model it has helped perpetuate throughout Chile, the net pen operations from which Mama Bear products are sourced threaten worker safety, with at least two worker deaths at Australis facilities in the last year.
Chile is not alone in seeing a steep rise in industrial aquaculture operations in recent years. Though industrial aquaculture is a newer system than industrial animal agriculture, and is more concentrated in certain regions, it shares many qualities of industrial ag: large corporations use political influence to drive out smaller producers of food, and use a business model that relies upon environmental degradation and worker harm. Consumers increasingly demand that both wild-caught and farmed seafood they buy be sustainable and responsibly produced – which industrial salmon farming can never provide. In one survey, 88% of respondents said they’re willing to pay more for sustainable and responsibly-sourced products.
“Mama Bear’s wholesome packaging conceals a trail of environmental destruction sadly common to corporate-controlled salmon farming: oxygen-starved dead zones, parasite infestations, whales ensnared in nets, and putrid piles of fish waste and feed left on the seabed under marine cages,“ said Kelsey Eberly, FarmSTAND Senior Attorney. “Responsible, independent fishers can’t compete when salmon corporations unfairly claim the mantle of sustainability. Greenwashing is essential to Big Salmon’s business model, which is why FarmSTAND is committed to enforcing consumer laws in place to stop it, and preventing aquaculture giants from expanding in U.S. waters and around the world.”