By Staff Writer - February, 2nd 2014

Fish and seafood are excellent sources of high quality protein, vitamins, and minerals. But with all the warnings about buying fish these days (mercury levels, threatened species, farmed and fresh fish), it can be hard for fish lovers to know how to make the best seafood choices.

By Dr. Mercola

Industrial fish farming, or aquaculture, is the fastest growing form of food production in the world. About half of the world’s seafood now comes from fish farms, including in the US, and this is expected to increase.

Already, for the first time in modern history, in 2011 global farmed fish production topped beef production, and the gap widened in 2012 when 66 million tons of farmed fish were produced, compared to 63 million tons of beef.

At first glance, farmed fish may seem like a good idea to help protect wild seafood populations from overfishing while meeting the nutritional needs of an ever-expanding global population.

In reality, however, the industry is plagued with many of the same problems surrounding land-based concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), including pollution, disease and inferior nutritional quality. It’s getting so bad that fish farms can easily be described as “CAFOs of the sea.”

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