More and more fish are being raised on farms before they end up on dinner plates around the world. Aquaculture, or the culturing of fish in a controlled environment, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, a fact that’s putting tremendous strain on wild fish. The big downside to fish farming: It requires large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea. ‘It can take up to five pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of salmon, and we eat a lot of salmon,’ said lead author Rosamond L. Naylor, a professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University. There are also concerns about spreading disease from farmed to wild fish. Nonetheless, fish farming has grown rapidly in recent years, nearly tripling in volume between 1995 and 2007. Part of the reason for the rise is increased demand for omega-3 fatty acids, a type of fatty acid found in oily fish that is thought to be effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. ‘The huge expansion is being driven by demand,’ Naylor said. ‘As long as we are a […]