Elisabeth Rosenthal's report on the nutritional and environmental aspects of farmed tilapia has spawned dozens of internet responses. We present two more. This essay was published at the blog Organic Authority.
As overfishing continues to plague oceans, lakes and rivers around the world, the resulting fish farm aquaculture industry is devastating those already fragile ecosystems and may also be producing considerably less healthy animals than wild caught fish, offering fewer dietary benefits for humans.
In a NY Times article published earlier this week, Elisabeth Rosenthal digs into the tilapia industry—a fish few people had heard of ten years ago. Rosenthal writes that just last year, “more than 52 million pounds of fresh tilapia were exported to the United States, mostly from Latin America, as well as 422 million more pounds of frozen tilapia, both whole and fillet, nearly all from China, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.” Only 5 percent of tilapia consumed in America is raised in this country.
Environmentalists such as Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and star of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, argue that most of the self regulated “eco” or “sustainable” fishing and aquaculture farming, like those commonly used for raising tilapia, are heavily destructive, damaging vital ecosystems by using practices the U.S. would not allow within its borders. The extent of the damage to Lake Apoyo in Nicaragua from one relatively small cage had the effects of 3.7 million chickens defecating in the water, according to Rosenthal’s article.
When fish is recommended in place of chicken, pork or beef, it’s often for the Omega-3 fatty acids. But in comparison to other fish, tilapia contains significantly lower levels. Salmon contains more than 10 times the Omega-3 fat content than tilapia. This occurs largely due to the unnatural diet fed to the tilapia—corn and soy, which also happen to be two of the most common genetically modified seeds.
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Another blog, CL Atlanta, was equally fierce, for somewhat different reasons.
I've mentioned pretty frequently that I don't like tilapia. To my taste, it's the tofu of the animal world, not much better than a sop for other flavors. In fact, I like its texture less than tofu. It reminds me of the mysterious white stuff in the "fish sticks" I ate every Friday in school cafeterias.
I remember when food suppliers began aggressively marketing tilapia. A friend reported going to a trade show at the time and hearing someone promote the fish as if it were a sideshow freak. "No fish has the shelf life of tilapia!" a supplier told him. "It's truly the wonder fish."
I don't dispute that the fish is an excellent source of protein and that its low cost makes it an efficient addition to diets. It's called "aquatic chicken," co-opting the rep of the canned tuna known as Chicken of the Sea.
It turns out that tilapia is not as healthy as we've thought — not for consumers and not for the environment. The New York Times recently published an article titled "Another Side of Tilapia, the Perfect Factory Fish" that describes the fish's reality.
There's this:
And then there's this:
The author of the article, Elizabeth Rosenthal, followed up the story the next day with a blog entry detailing the actual origins and treatment of those pretty fresh tilapia filets you see in the market:
Tilapia: Unhealthy Factory-Farmed ‘Chicken of the Lake’
May 4th, 2011 - Jill Ettinger
In a NY Times article published earlier this week, Elisabeth Rosenthal digs into the tilapia industry—a fish few people had heard of ten years ago. Rosenthal writes that just last year, “more than 52 million pounds of fresh tilapia were exported to the United States, mostly from Latin America, as well as 422 million more pounds of frozen tilapia, both whole and fillet, nearly all from China, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.” Only 5 percent of tilapia consumed in America is raised in this country.
Environmentalists such as Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and star of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, argue that most of the self regulated “eco” or “sustainable” fishing and aquaculture farming, like those commonly used for raising tilapia, are heavily destructive, damaging vital ecosystems by using practices the U.S. would not allow within its borders. The extent of the damage to Lake Apoyo in Nicaragua from one relatively small cage had the effects of 3.7 million chickens defecating in the water, according to Rosenthal’s article.
When fish is recommended in place of chicken, pork or beef, it’s often for the Omega-3 fatty acids. But in comparison to other fish, tilapia contains significantly lower levels. Salmon contains more than 10 times the Omega-3 fat content than tilapia. This occurs largely due to the unnatural diet fed to the tilapia—corn and soy, which also happen to be two of the most common genetically modified seeds.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Another blog, CL Atlanta, was equally fierce, for somewhat different reasons.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Food & Life
Why are you eating that tilapia?
I remember when food suppliers began aggressively marketing tilapia. A friend reported going to a trade show at the time and hearing someone promote the fish as if it were a sideshow freak. "No fish has the shelf life of tilapia!" a supplier told him. "It's truly the wonder fish."
I don't dispute that the fish is an excellent source of protein and that its low cost makes it an efficient addition to diets. It's called "aquatic chicken," co-opting the rep of the canned tuna known as Chicken of the Sea.
It turns out that tilapia is not as healthy as we've thought — not for consumers and not for the environment. The New York Times recently published an article titled "Another Side of Tilapia, the Perfect Factory Fish" that describes the fish's reality.
There's this:
Compared with other fish, farmed tilapia contains relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils that are the main reasons doctors recommend eating fish frequently; salmon has more than 10 times the amount of tilapia. Also, farmed tilapia contains a less healthful mix of fatty acids because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia.
“It may look like fish and taste like fish but does not have the benefits — it may be detrimental,” said Dr. Floyd Chilton, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center who specializes in fish lipids.
And then there's this:
Environmentalists argue that intensive and unregulated tilapia farming is damaging ecosystems in poor countries with practices generally prohibited in the United States — like breeding huge numbers of fish in cages in natural lakes, where fish waste pollutes the water. “We wouldn’t allow tilapia to be farmed in the United States the way they are farmed here, so why are we willing to eat them?” said Dr. Jeffrey McCrary, an American fish biologist who works in Nicaragua. “We are exporting the environmental damage caused by our appetites.”
The author of the article, Elizabeth Rosenthal, followed up the story the next day with a blog entry detailing the actual origins and treatment of those pretty fresh tilapia filets you see in the market:
If you ask about the provenance of tilapia at your own market, you may discover what I did: that it was previously frozen and then thawed and put on display among fresh fish. And it was farmed in China.
How can it look so good after that kind of journey? Much of the tilapia farmed in China is frozen and then treated with carbon monoxide, a gas that prevents meat and seafood from discoloring as it ages. When it is thawed, it looks like new.
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