Fish meal

Fish meal (sometimes spelled fishmeal) is a commercial product made from whole wild-caught fish, bycatch, and fish by-products to feed farm animals, such as pigs, poultry, and farmed fish. Because it is calorically dense, and cheap to produce, fish meal has played a critical role in the growth of factory farms and the number of farm animals it is possible to breed and feed. Fish meal takes the form of powder or cake. This form is obtained by drying the fish or fish trimmings, and then grinding it. If the fish used is a fatty fish, it is first pressed to extract most of the fish oil. The production and large-scale use of fish meal are controversial. The lucrative market for fish meal as a feed encourages corporate fisheries not to limit their yields of bycatch (from which fish meal is made), and thus leads to depletion of ecosystems, environmental damage, and the collapse of local fisheries. Its role in facilitating the breeding and overfeeding of millions of pigs and chickens on factory farms has also been criticized by animal rights and animal welfare groups. Manufacturers of fish meal counter that fish meal's role in the feeding and breeding of millions of farm animals leads to the production of more food and the feeding of millions of people around the world.