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Why are we even talking about eating salmon? As stated in the article, salmon used to be a delicacy and rarely served in the lower 48 states.
We are not eating salmon because of the master minds and marketing geniuses at Walmart -- we are eating salmon because various health pundits over the last decade or so have told us to do so. It's supposed to be full of various health benefits, Omega 3 acids and so on. It's also supposed to be good for our hearts and arteries, and let's not forget the most important part -- eating fish is low calorie (vs. eating red meat) and is supposed to make us thin. Eating meat, fish and especially salmon is part and parcel of every low carb diet.
Maybe it will turn out that eating salmon is bad for us. I don't know. I have been told so many different things over the last 25 years, that I have no idea what is OK to eat at all. Oat bran is a life saver...oh, no oops, it's not that good after all. Eat lots of carbs, pasta, veggies...ooops, no I guess that makes you fat. Eat only protein....oops, no that gives you heart disease. Eat only vegetables....oops, no, those are coated with pesticides.
Basically, it's apparently that NOTHING is good enough for our precious bodies to consume as fuel. Oh, unless it's something rare and wild and caught with a special net, and sold only at some primo, uber-pricey store called Whole Foods, which doesn't even do business in the state I live in.
Most American families, including mine, cannot feed themselves on any substance -- whether wild caught salmon, Beluga caviar, Kobe beef, etc. -- that costs $19.99 a pound or more. This is the kind of precious eating that can only be done by maybe ONE or two high income yuppies who are eating teeny tiny portions anyhow so that they can stay super slim. If I even attempted this, it would cost $100 a day to feed my family! GET REAL!!!!
A more productive conversation would be why Americans are so nutty and obessive about what they eat, how much they weigh, and what kind of status can be achieved by eating precious, fancy, expensive foods that other people can't afford.
I am not defending Walmart -- I object to the way they treat employees and the lack of health insurance, etc. I act on this to some degree by writing them with my concerns, by writing my state and federal representatives and by choosing, mostly, to shop elsewhere.
However, we are deluding ourselves if we don't think that other grocery megacenters (SuperTarget, Costco, Bjs and so on) are not doing pretty much the same darned thing. Do you think THEIR salmon is wild caught in Alaska? Please! And what about your neighborhood grocer -- what are the chances that he is buying the same exact Chilean farmed salmon and just charging you more, then pocking the difference?????
