Most of us enjoy farmed, quality protein from a variety of animals. 聽In fact, the United Nations鈥� Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported, the average American consumed 200 pounds of chicken, pork and beef and another 13 pounds of shrimp, tuna, salmon, tilapia, pollock and catfish (known in the industry as 鈥渢op 6 seafood鈥�). While all of the land-dwelling animals on our most frequently consumed proteins list are herbivores, many of the seafood proteins are not.聽

In an effort to make our global food chain more sustainable, the aquaculture industry began by farming carnivorous proteins鈥攊nitially salmon, trout and shrimp鈥攊n ocean cages. This means that early fish farmers could breed carnivorous seafood, but that they had to harvest other animals from the sea in order to sustain their stock.

Two herbivores, or natural omnivores that do well as herbivores, are tilapia and catfish.聽 To farm these herbivorous proteins, there is no need to catch other fish for food. Furthermore, tilapia and catfish are not farmed in Ocean cages, but in fresh or brackish inland ponds that result in considerably less pollution and with the obvious good sense of reducing pressures on our oceans.

Food for thought.

Steve Hedlund鈥檚 recent article, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 Holding Back U.S. Seafood Consumption?鈥� on SeafoodSource.com, addresses the hurdles that the U.S. seafood industry must clear to increase seafood consumption by the year 2020.聽 He focuses on five major impediments;

• increased consumption:
• the economy;
• food safety regulations;
• trade barriers;
• the lack of supply; and,
• the lack of consumer education. 聽聽

I believe that the first hurdle consumers must pass is cost.聽 Fish is a more expensive protein than dinnertime staples like chicken, beef and pork.聽 Consumers are starting to learn that investments in their diets will offer a return on investment in their health.聽 But, not everyone is ready to put their money where their mouths are鈥攍iterally.

To those not quite ready to make a major investment, I鈥檇 encourage a foray into tilapia.聽 It is the lowest cost alternative to other fish and seafood.

For daily recipes to help you try Tilapia in your home, follow us on Twitter at HQSustainable.

Food for thought.

Aquaculture鈥檚 Impact in Developing Countries

How does inland freshwater-farmed fish impact the lives of the people working on these farms in developing countries?聽

Much relies on the methods used.聽 But, my experience with HQ Sustainable has shown the impact to be very positive in Hainan, China, where we farm tilapia in 1,000 co-op ponds.聽

Suitable methods of farming must take into consideration the availability of water resources and the use of waste water from the farms. The use made of the land must be the highest and best farm use, cannot include removal of another valuable farming resource. As with most businesses, location is key.

China encourages aquaculture investment in rural areas, in part, to help maintain rural communities and reduce migration and unmanageable cost pressures on big cities.聽 The investment made in construction of ponds and aqueducts is a valuable infrastructure. The revenues flowing from aquaculture are much higher per acre than other farmed crops.

In our cooperative of Chinese tilapia farmers, a pond is typically 2.5 acres in area with a depth of over 6.5 feet. Such a pond can produce 2 harvests of about 15 metric tons per harvest, or a total of 30 tons. Live fish prices are roughly $1 per pound in the U.S., this means an annual revenue per pond of about $66,000 or a $12,000 to $15,000 operating profit per pond, per year. The average income of China in 2006 was $2,025 per person. One pond can account for gainful employment for as many as 7 people at these values.

We鈥檙e all bombarded with food packaging or menu items that suggest what we鈥檙e eating is 鈥渁ll natural,鈥� but what does it mean?聽 In the farming process, the feed used and environment provided to raise an 鈥渁ll natural鈥澛爁ood product are key.聽

Fish eat what is available in their environments according to their innate appetites. Tilapia are omnivores and eat water based plants and organisms that include algae, duck weed and tadpoles. In a farming environment, feed is chosen to optimize growth while reducing costs, without compromising the quality of the fish protein consumed or harming the environment.聽

Feed chosen is all-important since we are what we eat. Quality feed ingredients like corn and soya that don鈥檛 include animal by-products, makes for a more natural product to some. 聽If nothing else it is more sustainable. Sustainability is a key component of 鈥渁ll natural.鈥澛犅�

The farming steps needed to ensure that tilapia is 鈥渁ll natural,鈥� include:

• Avoiding the use of antibiotics and hormones;
• Managing pond waste through the introduction of bottom-feeding fish;
• Introducing predator fish that feed on unhealthy fish to manage variations in health amongst the tilapia;
• Stocking fish in the pond at levels that eliminate the need for artificial pond aeration, or the addition of chemicals;
• Refusing to use preservatives such as TPP (tripolyphosphate) at the processing plant; and,
• Labeling products for public consumption reflecting the actual weight of the meat, not the weight of ice frozen to the fish (glaze).

Food for thought.

The word sustainable is used frequently without much reflection on its different meanings. We all agree that abuse of our environment is not sustainable. But, when you鈥檙e buying food鈥攏amely seafood–what qualifies as sustainable?

聽Contrast the use of the word sustainable in its very different applications to ocean-caught fish (literally fish caught by boats of fishermen on our seas) and aquaculture (fish grown in land or sea-based aquatic farms). 聽The meaning of sustainable in relation to the ocean harvest is obvious鈥搃f you pull too many fish out of the ocean, species may become extinct and global food supply may be depleted. The meaning of sustainable in relation to aquaculture is very different.聽

With aquaculture, you can always harvest 100% of what you have seeded and grown (except for brooding stock). Harvesting levels are not what is scrutinized by regulatory bodies. Instead, the impact of farming on the surrounding environment (pollution, escapes of non-native fish, use of chemicals) and the use of animal byproducts in the feed are the most important to evaluating the sustainability of aquaculture.

聽The audit of these two applications of seafood sustainability has become big business. In the case of ocean-caught fish, we have limited data and guess what is sustainable. In fish farming, we have unlimited data and know what is sustainable.

North Atlantic cod was pulled out of the ocean and labeled 鈥渟ustainable鈥� until it disappeared from the seas and appeared on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources鈥� Red List. Someone guessed wrong.

Food for thought.