Nothing can drag the death-rattle out of the whole organic question quite like fish can. (And no doubt, canned fish can, too.) For anyone willing to dig, the reality is bleak: organic is a relatively empty label slapped upon goods at the behest of an uppity agro-lobby desiring to set their goods apart from the rest. Therefore it should not shock us (though it well might) whenever "organic" standards have been downgraded, stripped, or severely gutted, to serve the interests of producers, middle-men, or vendors.

The matter of "organic" (precious non-thing that it is) becomes all the more fragile when we discuss fish. The ocean, it turns out, has been completely fouled. And water moves. It's kind of like air in this respect, which is why GMO pollen doesn't abide property lines. For all of these reasons, and probably for many more, it is completely hilarious to regard the discussion of whether farmed fish can be regarded as organic. Let's see:

Can we apply an empty and shifting standard of purity to an untested, vast, and deeply polluted environment? Well? What do we WANT the truth to be? Do we even care about the toxic constituents of our diet, so long as we can purchase products emblazoned with the ORGANIC flag?

If you want to know what you're eating, and how it's been cared for, know your farmer. Your environment may already have been hopelessly compromised by decades of petroleum based fertilizer, toxic pesticide, and, more recently, the Monsanto Protection act, but it's at least worthwhile to know the measure of your poison.

The fish? We cut them loose awhile back.