One of our more confusing food choices is whether to buy farmed or wild-caught salmon. Environmental issues come into play, as do health benefits. Wild-caught salmon has a higher and more potent form of Omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your heart and why you’re urged to eat fatty fish three times a week.

Salmon that is farmed in ocean pens, (as opposed to tanks on land), often harm the environment.

So what is a responsible cook to choose? We like the advice from the Seafood Watch list of the Monterey Bay Acquarium in California (click here) to either buy wild-caught Alaska salmon or U.S. tank-raised Coho or Silver salmon. The only problem is finding a store that labels the fish that carefully!

Also, the Rodale company, (publisher of several health magazines and cookbooks), has a helpful article weighing the pros and cons of all farm-raised vs. wild fish on its Web site (click here). An Alaskan commercial fishery, called Triad Fisheries, has a video of how its wild salmon is caught (click here). Also, Mark Tupper, president of the company, said salmon that's flash-frozen at sea and glazed with ice, just after being caught, is the best way to get a fresh-tasting fish.

"The finest seafood restaurants around the world wouldn’t dream of serving (salmon) that hasn’t at one point been frozen, a fact that most consumers find surprising,” Tupper says.

We’ve been pretty clear in the past that we prefer the flavor of the more fatty farm-raised salmon, but it seems that we’re going to have to change our supplier from our regular supermarket (no origin or species specified) to the pricier specialty markets, such as Whole Foods.

What’s your position on which salmon to buy?