

From China, The Future of Fish  - cwan
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_44/b4201088229228.htm

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ars
From an ecological point of view this is good news.

Unlike almost all food fish (which need to eat meat), tilapia eat plants.

Almost all animals - except fish - eaten by humans eat plants, and now fish
will join the list.

By eating plants they are eating much lower on the food chain, this
significantly reduces the impact and resources needed to grow the animal.

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konad
Here's a crazy idea

instead of eating fish, eat soy-and-corn mixture

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ars
Tilapia also eat algae. Are you going to suggest we eat that too?

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konad
we could call it nori or agar

[http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbot...](http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Algae/index.html)

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barkingcat
Chinese aquaculture is different from what you'd expect from a western /
european / north american aquaculture operation.

The food pellets that the fish eat contains antibiotics to stop disease, and
estrogen/progesterone (via excess birth control pills rejected for human use
from the large pharma factories) in order to make the fish grow faster.

The fish grow in a chemical bath - containing both the minimally treated waste
water from semiconductor / electronics manufacturing, as well as what's needed
to counteract those chemicals.

Don't believe me? If food companies in China can put melamine in baby powder
in order to save a few cents, what makes you think they care about what they
give to the fish?

~~~
sanswork
Comparing another case with another company isn't really the proof you need to
make people believe you. Once you provide proof of your actual claims we can
all honestly believe you.

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Groxx
> _Americans keep ordering more_

I hate statements like this, because they ignore the influence of what's being
_offered_. If the fish are higher profit, many businesses will start selling
them instead of better things which make them less money.

> _A decade ago, few Americans ate tilapia. ... Then demand surged in the wake
> of the Atlantic cod fishery collapse._

Which caused Atlantic cod prices to skyrocket, I'd bet (I don't remember).
Similar to how the oil spill caused shrimp prices to skyrocket.

None of which implies anything about _demand_ , merely _supply_. But
"Americans keep ordering more" states a change in _demand_. "American
companies keep ordering more" might be more accurate. Inundate the market with
something non-offensive, and you're assured better sales than before.

edit:

Hah!

> _"China's track record in certain areas isn't perfect," says Bill Mardon ...
> He singles out Chinese processors' use of a glaze ... contains carbon
> monoxide, which preserves the color ... and can ... look fresher than it
> is._

You mean like beef in America?

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jon914
What surprises me most about this article is that the author was able to gain
some visibility (sugarcoated or not) into this industry, in China no less.

Slaughterhouses and meat processors in the US, in particular, are notoriously
opaque about their operations in a way that would make Apple's practices seem
lenient by comparison.

~~~
jakarta
One of the reasons might be that there are a couple of publicly traded
'aquaculture' companies in China that are kind of desperate to show that they
aren't frauds.

One is mentioned in the article, HQ Sustainable Marine.

So typically if investors show up to these small companies, they will try to
do whatever they can to take them around their factories and show that the
business is real.

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russellallen
I read that through but still don't get why "environmentalists hate it"?
Wouldn't farmed fish be preferable, environmentally, than continuing to trawl
the ocean?

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jon914
Some farmed fish requires fish to feed them, which is unsustainable in itself
when you're feeding N pounds of other fish to produce 1 pound of the edible
type.

See: [http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/farmedfish-
pnas092...](http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/farmedfish-pnas092009)

Recently, I've seen more of a shift to grains, but that reduces the
nutritional value of the fish.

~~~
netcan
Why would shifting to grains reduce the nutritional value of the fish? Is cat
more nutritious than lamb?

~~~
jon914
Fish feed consists of small, less desirable fish such as sardines and
mackerel. These are rich in omega-3, so shifting to grains reduces the
quantity available in the fish.

~~~
netcan
OK I get it. You didn't mean the nutritional value of a pound of fish.

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w1ntermute
Print version:
[http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/10_44/b42...](http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/10_44/b4201088229228.htm)

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mattmaroon
I just cooked this for dinner less than an hour ago. It's really not a bad
fish. It's no Chilean Sea Bass, but it's light, never gamey, and you can eat
it without worrying about it going extinct.

I'd still take catfish over it pretty much every time if they were of equal
quality, but you're often able to get tilapia that is considerably fresher.

~~~
PakG1
I tried it back during my first trip to Sichuan in 2005. Luofeiyu, everyone
seems to eat it there, at least in the rural part of Sichuan where I was. It
was especially awesome barbecued with Sichuan spices. I think I liked it so
much because it tasted unlike any fish I've ever had before. I used to live in
Vancouver, so I like my fish. :)

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jmm
Tilapia and catfish _are_ good fish to be eating over their carnivorous
cousins (food input vs. food output), but the specifics of farm raising have
something to do with an individual fish's greenness.

In the end, I hope that we push up production of tilapia here in the US, and
I'm excited by programs that blend simple aquaculture with more traditional
green growing: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qZPwBPAqks> (Will Allen is a
boss!).

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mark_l_watson
Good article. My wife and I just got back from China and I noticed in the food
markets that almost all seafood is sold live. Our guide said that is what
consumers there demand.

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leokuan
That has a lot to do with the way they prepare most of their seafood dishes -
steaming with mild seasoning. And since most people don't have access to ovens
at home in China, steaming and pan frying are pretty much the only ways they
do fish. They don't mind bony little fish so long the flesh tastes right which
is crucial for steaming applications. That's why they demand live seafood. Us
Americans on the other hand, when we think of fish, we think of fillets, with
all sorts of crusts and glaze and whatnot, which often overwhelm the subtle
taste of the fish itself.

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brianbreslin
There was an episode of dirty jobs at a tilapia farm. The farm rotated Chilean
sea bass, carp, and tilapia through pools as the tilapia basically cleaned the
bass waste. They were using the excess water to irrigate plants in a desert at
the end.

~~~
brianbreslin
update here is the video link:
[http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30832-dirty-
jobs-s...](http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30832-dirty-jobs-striped-
bass-farm-video.htm)

