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It seems you're not bashful about giving uninformed opinions. Canned salmon is a versatile product, with a market share that speaks for itself. Those cans will most definitely not end up in the trash.
I was commenting on the article you posted, that was referenced by Metlakatla. Market share? This is a buyout of a product by the US government to keep an industry afloat that might otherwise fail, to then distribute the product through USDA’s "food and nutrition programs", as the article states, which means dumping it onto institutions, schools, prisons, food banks, and welfare recipients...and into the trash it'll go.
What an enormous waste of resources and senseless slaughter of tons and tons of marine life. I'd guess someone from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is blowing someone at USDA to make this all happen, for lust of money.
I was commenting on the article you posted, that was referenced by Metlakatla. Market share? This is a buyout of a product by the US government to keep an industry afloat that might otherwise fail, to then distribute the product through USDA’s "food and nutrition programs", as the article states, which means dumping it onto institutions, schools, prisons, food banks, and welfare recipients...and into the trash it'll go.
What an enormous waste of resources and senseless slaughter of tons and tons of marine life. I'd guess someone from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is blowing someone at USDA to make this all happen, for lust of money.
More of the same. You really ought to do a little background reading on the subject.
Perhaps someone else will chime in with some relevant links, I'm not interested.
More of the same. You really ought to do a little background reading on the subject.
I don't have to. No way would most people say that canned salmon is better tasting, nutritious, versatile, and desirable. Sounds like some posters in this thread are governed by a financial stake in this game, hence the hostile replies and lack of continued discussion. Silence is golden?
"Canned salmon" is okay for casseroles or spreads, but isn't going to win you any friends or awards. It's poverty fodder, like canned tuna fish, as a source of shelf-stable protein available at a lower cost. That the government has to get involved to bail out and peddle such fodder in the name of "nutrition" says it all.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heavymind
Typical PR nonsense. Canned salmon is desirable? Though I will admit I've never tried canned salmon, I also don't think I ever will. Fresh salmon is one of the tastiest and most nutritious fish and the canning process probably turns it into a tasteless, mushy commodity for prisons and hospitals. These cans will sit on food banks shelves for a couple years until they end up dumped in the trash.
It's delicious. Really.
Full of protein.
Our issue is that a can is a lot to eat for 2 people.
My 2 cents: All my immediate neighbors are commercial fishermen; I am not. My wife and I have gone out with a couple of them for a few days. I am amazed at how hard they work and how well cared the fish they catch are treated. They take great care to process quality fish for the market they are fishing for. There is always the bickering between the charter guys and the troll guys(none of these guys I know are charter guys). Man, when they are on the fish they just don't stop working until all the fish are cleaned and put down the hull on ice. sometimes its like a 16-18 hour grind nonstop dealing with their catch. They don't stop to rest or sleep. It is truly amazing! All the multitude of reg's and crap they have to deal with is mindboggling. The one thing I've noticed that pisses them off the most is the lower 48er's that come up here to fish then leave taking their money with them(commercial guys and charters).
These guys have done this all their lives and it gets harder and harder for them every year with more bs they have to deal with. My wife and I are amazed at their commitment to the industry and their dedication.
^^Agree completely that those working out on the fishing boats have one of the hardest jobs in the world. Not sure how they can do it - I see the help wanted ads on my local Craigslist looking for seasonal workers to go up to Alaska and the pay is pitifully low. Which bothers me that they work so hard to harvest this product being bought up by the USDA, most of which will go uneaten and into the trash.
Yesterday I thought of this thread and finally took a look at the canned salmon selection at my local grocery store - there was exactly one brand/variety to choose from, in a large can (12-16oz?) perched up on the top shelf, with a total inventory of maybe ten cans. Stocked on all the shelves below from top to bottom and spanning about six feet across, were shelves full of canned or pouch tuna fish, in many sizes and brands. Hundreds of cans.
Grocers don't waste shelf space on products that don't sell. Seeing this reality supports my previous comments that there is not a big market at the consumer level for canned salmon, so it ends up as government-supplied fodder in schools and prisons that nobody wants to eat.
Yesterday I thought of this thread and finally took a look at the canned salmon selection at my local grocery store - there was exactly one brand/variety to choose from, in a large can (12-16oz?) perched up on the top shelf, with a total inventory of maybe ten cans. Stocked on all the shelves below from top to bottom and spanning about six feet across, were shelves full of canned or pouch tuna fish, in many sizes and brands. Hundreds of cans.
Grocers don't waste shelf space on products that don't sell. Seeing this reality supports my previous comments that there is not a big market at the consumer level for canned salmon, so it ends up as government-supplied fodder in schools and prisons that nobody wants to eat.
Where?
Every grocer I've frequented in Alaska and Hawaii-including both Costcos- offer plenty of canned salmon in the smaller sizes.
Again, it'd be easy for you to simply look up historical sales of canned salmon in the US.
For canned fish, tuna, salmon and sardines are the top 3.
I know better than to engage, because there's clearly something going on here besides a professed distaste for canned salmon, and I really don't care to know what it is (though if I had to guess, my bet would be on a substance-fueled attempt at gaining attention). This is for anyone else who might stumble on this thread, because there's some absolute misinformation being spit out here by someone who knows less than nothing:
The kind of fishing that Tim's friends and neighbors are doing is a long, long, long way from the low-paying, grueling processing jobs on the factory trawlers in the Bering Sea and other fishing grounds of the far north Pacific. Tim lives in Sitka. That's on the Alaska panhandle; those ships don't even operate there. His friends and neighbors are hook-and-line power trollers (typically two-person crews, often a married couple) and do not advertise for deckhands on -48 Craigslist or supply the commodity market.
Those processing ships, btw, do not even harvest or process salmon.
Anyone who can do rudimentary math knows that the market for commodity salmon hasn't changed; what's changed is the amount that's currently on the market. Both Russian and American processors contributed to the overage by funding hatchery production to the extent that there's just too much of it. Additionally, the majority of Alaska salmon, canned or otherwise, is sold on the global marketplace (Japan is a primary consumer), so what's on the shelf in Podunk isn't really a good indicator of anything other than what's on the shelf in Podunk.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 03-09-2024 at 01:56 PM..
Additionally, the majority of Alaska salmon, canned or otherwise, is sold on the global marketplace (Japan is a primary consumer), so what's on the shelf in Podunk isn't really a good indicator of anything other than what's on the shelf in Podunk.
I don't want to quarrel with you, Metlakatla. I've seen you tongue-lash other posters and it's turned ugly real quick. Your argument was solid and articulate, but we're not talking about the Japanese market or "otherwise" salmon products. The whole gist of this thread was about the USDA contracting into a buyout of a salmon harvest with the intention of canning it for government "nutrition program" distribution, which translates into schools, hospitals, prisons, welfare/food banks, etc. At that level, I would wager the actual consumption to be very low. Most is going to end up in the trash.
Canned fish is valuable as a shelf-stable protein source, as I'm sure you noticed during the huge uptick of sales during the 2020 Covid food hoarding frenzy, when canned fish products disappeared off store shelves. I bet most of those cans now sit in our landfills. Most people associate canned fish with hard times, not good eatin'.
And you are correct that I live in what might be deemed a 'Podunk' area - rural town with limited shopping options and mostly a lower-income demographic. If the industry wanted to unload canned salmon into the consumer market, this would be the place. Price it low, stack it high, and watch it fly. But I'm not seeing it.
I have a hard time believing that those in coastal areas like Alaska and Hawaii are buying canned salmon on Costco shelves, as opposed to fresh seafood in the local markets.
No, actually, the whole gist of the thread was about three major processors announcing closures/selloffs, and canned salmon was only a part of that particular picture. I'm the one who brought up the USDA buyout somewhere in the middle of the discussion. For some reason, you've chosen to fixate on commodity fish; I suspect because you think I'm involved in that segment of the industry. The only reason I even responded to your last post was to correct the misinformation it contained about the type of vessels used by Tim's friends and neighbors.
Haven't been in Costco for years, but I'll take Artkitos' word for what's on their shelves over what you have a "hard time believing."
Your small store in Podunk very likely can't afford to buy the product at scale, and whoever does their buying obviously isn't smart enough to stay away from those large cans. That's actually a pretty terrible product, with half a fish stuffed into a large can bones, skin, and all.
For anyone who's actually interested in a little salmon history, canned salmon was sent to the American South during the Great Depression because so many people were suffering from niacin deficiencies to the extent that they were developing a condition known as pellagra, which can be fatal if left unchecked. Because the Depression hit that area especially hard, most of their diet consisted of ground corn, which was literally killing them.
By your own admission in another thread, you can't even afford to go out for breakfast, so I'm not sure what all the spitting is about concerning canned salmon or any other product purchased by the USDA to distribute to low-income recipients.
It's been a long time since I ate mass-market seafood, salmon or otherwise, but 150+ years on the global marketplace is a strong indication that the majority of the product has not ended up in the trash or in landfills. I do recall seeing it in our home and in the homes of friends and family growing up, and none of us were low-income. It does seem as if several posters here would disagree with your assessment as well. I suspect there are some regional differences in the perception of canned fish due to it being distributed en masse in the Appalachians and other poverty stricken areas at one time. Edit: I do recall my mother putting canned salmon in pasta; anyone who doesn't know how to make that taste good can't cook.
The Japanese market for American seafood is absolutely relevant within the context of this discussion; the point remains that a small store in Podunk where some bright bulb chose to stock the worst possible product isn't representative of the bigger picture. Like I said before, both Russian and U.S. processors chose to fund these hatcheries to the extent that they crashed their own market.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 03-10-2024 at 12:10 AM..
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