Commercial Farming Vs. Fish Farming

Commercial farming is the practice of generating large amounts of a farm product for widespread distribution; farm products can be crops or livestock, where livestock means any domesticated animal raised for consumption or commodity. In this sense, fish farming can also be a type of commercial farming, given that the fish are raised on a large scale and for widespread distribution. However, some fish farming is done on a small, local scale, and would thus not be considered commercial farming.

Commercial Farming

• Commercial farming is also known as agribusiness and can be contrasted with diversified farming. In commercial farming, the crop or livestock is grown in vast monocultures or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), while diversified farming utilizes different crops and livestock on a single farm to maintain biodiversity and sell to a more local market. Characteristic of commercial farms is their utilization of technology and sophisticated farm equipment, as well as hybrid seeds, pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizer.

Fish Farming

• Fish farming, a kind of aquaculture, originated in China over 4,000 years ago, and people and communities since have been farming fish; the Romans, Egyptians and Hawaiians were known for fish farming, and it is mentioned in the Bible as well. Traditionally, fish farming consisted of maintaining and raising fish in an accessible pond or sectioned area in a body of water for easy capture. Today, much fish farming has become commercialized and taken on the characteristics of commercial farming, such as large outputs, and the use of technology, fertilizers and antibiotics.

Concerns

• Commercial farming, including commercial fish farming, poses environmental and personal health risks. Fish farming and CAFOs use antibiotics to maintain the health of the animals, since the high-density living quarters make them sick. These antibiotics can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, putting both animals and humans at risk. High concentrations of waste are also produced; in most CAFOs, it is left in a toxic manure pond, and in commercial fish farming, it is often washed away into the larger body of water, creating an uninhabitable marine area.

Benefits

• Wild-caught fish are currently facing grave threats of overfishing and extinction. There are limits to the amount of fish we can catch in the wild, but consumer demand is still high; fish farming creates more fish to fill this gap. The same can be said for much of commercial farming, which provides a way to meet the high consumer demands for crops and livestock at as low a price as possible.

Nutrition

• The nutritional content of farmed fish depends on the method of farming, the habitat and the feed. Generally, the nutritional content of commercially farmed fish is inferior to that of wild-caught fish. For example, in the United States the commonly farmed tilapia is often fed corn; the corn diet drastically increases the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which exacerbates and causes issues like heart disease. Non-commercial fish farms where fish eat their natural diet produce fish with higher protein content, and a balanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.