Thus, it remains on many shopping lists.

However, the current movement encouraging Tasmanians to boycott salmon is not the answer to addressing concerns.

Why? Because as well as hurting those who have been encouraged and permitted to invest by successive parliaments, it also hurts ordinary Tasmanians.

Further, being encouraged to make certain choices in the supermarket isle conjures feelings of exclusiveness with those who can afford to make a choice sounding the loudest noise.

The sought-after fish, which is not native to Tasmania, has developed a reputation underpinned by the state's brand of clean, green, and "good for you".

But then my favourite Australian writer and a man who I revere, Richard Flanagan, wrote Toxic - The Rotten Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry, released like recent Taylor Swift albums - under the cover of darkness and with fan notification left late into the evening.

Flanagan explained his rationale when he told a recent audience at Launceston's Star Théâtre, as part of the Tamar Valley Writer's Festival via livestream from the Sydney Writer's Festival, that it was to protect the book from legal suppression from the salmon industry.

And sadly, we will now walk a well-trodden path with Tasmania divided by another industry, and it will not be long before we are at war again.

Flanagan expanded that the hydro and forestry wars were due to a power imbalance in the Tasmanian community, and a desire to search for space - a culture inspired by First Nations people.

The city is not our desired or happy place, rather, it is Tasmania's natural environment that drives our quest for a level of freedom that is the envy of many mainlanders.

Unfortunately, Flanagan's onstage interview with the regularly outstanding Laura Tingle was a one-way show where the journalist failed to challenge the author.

Surprisingly, Tingle did not ask one question that could be considered counter to the author's sentiments, but perhaps they were not her instructions. Fortunately, the interview was about far more than just Toxic, and as much about writing.

I read the book in just four hours. And as I reached 70 per cent on my Kindle, I was looking forward to the remaining third - unsurprisingly the rest was made up of footnotes.

Flanagan and his supporters continue to encourage us to stop eating Tasmanian farmed salmon.

Critics of Flanagan's book quickly dismissed it, offering that he was simply a fiction writer.

For those who choose to criticise, it is simply a throwaway cheap shot that will not resonate or cut through with the community.

Dismissing Flanagan's non-fiction as fiction is as fiction as his fiction. He may well be the 2014 Man Booker Prize for the acclaimed The Narrow Road to the Deep North, however, he has also written several important non-fiction pieces.

Flanagan often writes on the northern side of Bruny Island, facing the Tasmanian mainland, and looking back across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel named after the French Explorer, Rear Admiral Antoine-Raymond-Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux.

However, his latest book was not written on the island due to his disgust about alleged inadequate regulation of the industry and environmental concerns. This includes algae, the degradation of Macquarie Harbour, noise pollution, alleged overuse of antibiotics, flushing fish in freshwater to alleviate amoebic gill disease, and the rubbish left over from the process including plastics and nets often breaking their berth due to challenging weather conditions for farming.

To break down Toxic's arguments we need a school of facts. Unfortunately, the salmon industry remains bunkered down - no doubt strategizing and preparing a response to the book which has already been thrice reprinted.

It is untenable that deeply respected scientists have resigned from the regulatory body they felt compelled to join.

As Environment Minister I did not like standing on a boat next to fish pens as seals, who have returned to pre-whaling numbers, were shot with beanbags from a 12-gauge shot gun. But nor did I enjoy shooting possums and wallabies and deer who gorged themselves on expensive grain handfed to sheep on a Midlands property.

Of course, we must do better, and land-based salmon farming will undoubtedly be the future.

But telling an average punter that they should refuse to feed their family with four portions of Tasmanian salmon for $12 is not the answer in a state with the biggest education, health, and nutrition challenges in the nation.

There will be many who do not stop reading Richard Flanagan's work just as much as they will not stop eating Tasmanian Atlantic salmon. Not until the industry has had opportunity to respond and counter the allegations documented in his latest book.

Neither will they stop eating beef, nor eggs, nor lamb, nor pork. What many Tasmanians will expect is for state and federal parliaments to empower and strengthen the regulator, the Environmental Protection Authority, and ensure that they do their job.

And for farmers who depend on our brand for survival to consistently improve their practices and reform as required.

But do we really have to be at war again?