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Improved farming practices mean healthier fish, healthier environment

The phrase farm-to-table usually conjures images of field-grown arugula tossed into a summer salad, fresh-picked strawberries turned into jam and maybe even backyard chickens roasted for dinner. It's time to add fish to that picture.

“Several years ago, the public perception was that farmed (fish) was not as good an option. That's no longer the case,” says Aislinn Gauchay, Great Lakes and sustainability programs manager for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. “There are so many healthy and wonderful options that are farmed.”

According to The Associated Press, Americans consume 4.5 billion pounds of fish and seafood (not all of it during the 40 days of Lent); 90 percent of it is imported. With wild inventory limited, farmers step in to fill the gap. Instead of donning overalls and driving combines, they wear waders and handle nets.

“With the population growing, we're going to need to turn to farm-raised fish,” said Stacy Schultz, sustainability coordinator with Fortune Fish, a Bensenville-based company that provides fish to restaurants throughout the suburbs and Chicago. “Aquaculture has changed so much in 30 years.”

Until a handful of years ago, farmed fish meant fish raised in floating pens near the ocean shore or in inland man-made ponds. Those methods raised concerns that farmed fish actually hurt the environment. The high concentration of fish waste polluted ocean waters and had a negative impact on other fish populations, and farmed fish could escape into open waters, With ponds, the discharge of waste water from inland ponds had the potential to contaminate groundwater.

And just as they did with cattle and hogs, drugs became an issue.

“Antibiotics and antifungals gave aquaculture a bad rap,” Gauchay said. As fish farming has evolved, those issues are disappearing.

With Patagonia-based Verlasso farmed salmon, for instance, providing the fish with an innovative feed that reduces the dependency on wild-caught feeder fish versus traditionally farmed salmon. This helps protect overharvested smaller fish while still keeping omega-3 content strong.

Fish farming has even moved far from the ocean shores, to places including Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska. In some cases, barns that used to house pigs or store traditional farming equipment now house tanks where fish continually swim against a current in moving water that filters waste and strengthens the fish.

In Chicago, Greens & Gills produces tilapia and herbs and greens in a closed-loop system set up in a former pork packing plant. Filtered fish waste gets broken down into nitrates that feed the plants and the plants filter the water for the fish. No fertilizers or pesticides required.

“Some methods are improving,” Gauchay said. “Folks are doing great work ... to make sure that consumers get a great product.”

Gauchay and Schultz both singled out Rushing Waters Trout Farm in Wisconsin as one place doing it right.

Gauchay also said she's a big fan of mussels, clams and oysters. “Eighty-five percent of the global capture is farmed,” she added. These shellfish are filter feeders, so there's not the risk of mercury that there might be from larger fish that eat smaller fish. “They're a great source of all we want from fish.”

What chef Pete Balodimas wants from fish is affordability.

“The demand for fish has outgrown supply; that's why wild is so expensive,” said Balodimas, who runs the kitchens at Shaw's Crab House in Schaumburg and Chicago.

Environmental compatibility, sustainability and low toxin levels are other items in the pro-farmed column.

“But the bottom line is flavor,” he said, with the disclaimer “if we found a fish that was fantastic, but not bred to our standards, it wouldn't be on the menu.”

Two farm-raised species that did make the cut and are on Shaw's current menu: king salmon and branzino from Greece, also called Mediterranean sea bass.

But are farmed fish as healthy as wild-caught fish? Because they're fighting for survival, wild caught fish are bigger and fattier, and that means more lean protein and more heart-healthy omega-3s, right? Not always.

“With wild fish, there's variability of what they eat,” Schultz said, adding that feeder populations vary between coasts and continents. And recent analysis has shown farmed fish provide comparable nutrients as their wild brethren.

Adds Schultz, “with a farmed product you get a consistent nutritional rating.”

Wasabi & Sesame Broiled Salmon with Quinoa, Roasted Red Peppers and Bok Choy

Clams and Bok Choy with Black Bean Sauce

Whole Grilled Branzino

Smoked Rainbow Trout Frittata

  Chef Peter Balodimas at Shaw's Crab House in Schaumburg shows off his grilled whole branzino, a farmed fish from Greece, that he serves with lemon and oregano. Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
  Chef Peter Balodimas shows off a whole branzino before he cooks it for diners at Shaw's Crab House in Schaumburg. He said Whole Foods Markets also carry the farm-raised fish. Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
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