In the last few years fresh cod has become more expensive than salmon. One………because of the scarcity of the fish in the wild and the other has been the lowering of the price of Salmon due to increased farming.

The world’s first truly sustainable white fish, organic cod is now being farmed in the Shetland Islands, and recently it has won one of the Scottish food industry’s top awards.“No Catch” Organic Cod, produced by Johnson Seafarms at Vidlin in the north of the islands, has taken the supreme prize in the 2006 Scottish Food and Drink Excellence Awards.

Johnson Seafarms have worked with the Organic Food Federation and the RSPCA on developing organic standards for farmed cod.The cod are reared to the highest standards of welfare leaving the fish free to express their natural behaviour.

The company only uses as brood stock first generation wild cod native to Shetland thereby avoiding genetic manipulation. The Organic Cod is being raised to maturity over a 2 to 3 year cycle.A combination of low stocking densities, pens situated in strong current flows and feed from sustainable sources produces a fish with a milky white flesh, flaky texture and mild sweet taste.

The cod has already won the approval of some top chefs and is now being sold in leading restaurants in the UK and the USA. Another interesting point about farmed cod is that it hasn’t sat in the hold of a fishing boat for several days waiting to get back into port, so it should be fresher.A spokesman for Johnson Sea farms said: “Our fish meet the consumer’s insatiable love of cod but in a way which avoids further depletion of the world’s rapidly diminishing wild stocks.”

I haven’t personally tried this farmed cod yet so I will reserve my judgement until then. I do hope this farmed cod can truly overcomes the problems associated with farmed salmon such as texture (due to lack of space) and flavour. I hope to later this year to sample some cod for myself so watch this space.