Scrutiny of Chile’s lucrative but controversial salmon-farming industry has been turned up a notch following legislative hearings on the sector’s increasingly controversial environmental, sanitary and labor record. The lower house of the Chilean Congress met last month in special session to consider tighter oversight of salmon farming at the insistence of green groups, worker organizations and small-scale fishermen. Meanwhile, government agencies have stepped up policing of the sector, which has become the second largest salmon producer in the world, generates US$1.7 billion in annual exports and supplies about half of all farmed salmon consumed in the United States. In late May, 13 Chilean salmon companies—including some of the nation’s largest exporters—were fined by the Lake District Regional Environmental Commission (Corema... [Log in to read more]