Simen Sætre - The Salmon and the Tomato

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Simen Sætre from Episode 4 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore the hidden impacts of salmon farming in northern Europe, revealing the human and environmental costs behind cheap, year-round food. What connects salmon farming in northern Europe with tomato farming in southern Spain? These two, seemingly distinct food supply chains ensure that our supermarket shelves are stocked with cheap, year-round food. What we don’t see, however, are the hidden links - the overfishing along the coast of West Africa that destroys local communities’ livelihoods and drives migration to Europe; the dangerous journeys by small boat where 1 in 5 people die; the entrapment of migrants arriving in exploitative agricultural labour in Spain’s intensive greenhouses. This interview examines the story of salmon farming - and highlights the hidden costs of this highly commodified food. Simen uncovers the destructive, interconnected global supply chains linking northern European salmon aquaculture to the overexploitation of West African artisanal fisheries. He traces how the booming Norwegian salmon farming industry relies heavily on wild-caught ocean feed extracted from West Africa, exposing the ecological crises, corporate opacity, and false sustainability narratives surrounding salmon aquaculture. Resources from this interview: https://norla.no/en/books/1286-the-new-fish-the-global-history-of-salmon-farming https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735421/the-new-fish-by-simen-saetre-and-kjetil-ostli/ To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website. Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to this podcast, and share this episode with your friends and family.