A Fish Out Of Water
Mother Jones|January/February 2017

Can farmers in Iowa help save the world’s seafood supply?

- Maddie Oatman
A Fish Out Of Water

BY MID-OCTOBER, harvest is in full swing in central Iowa. Giant green combines crawl through rows of withered corn until well after dusk as Webster City’s farmers hurry to gather their crops before the first freeze sets in. The stiff, pale bodies of dead hogs pile up in dumpsters along gravel roads, waiting to be butchered. Geese sail south in wavering Vs, and the maple trees on the banks of Brewer Creek flare crimson.

A few miles outside of town, in a squat white barn that used to house hundreds of sows, a different sort of harvest has kicked into gear. Grace Nelson, 22 and tan with ombré hair, stands alert, clipboard in hand, watching her co-workers hustle to transfer fish from tanks to a flatbed truck bound for Colorado.

Their neighbors raise hogs and cattle, sow soybeans, and tend pumpkin patches and orchards now sagging with apples. But five years ago, the Nelsons—a third generation Iowa farming family—turned to raising fish. Hundreds of thousands of silvery barramundi, to be precise. Part of a hearty species that’s roughly the size of coho salmon and has flesh the flavor of red snapper, the Nelsons’ barramundi start their lives in their native Australia. Seventeen days after spawning, they are flown in plastic bags of water to central Iowa, where they spend their adolescence swimming against a current pulsing through rectangular tanks on the Nelsons’ farm. Barramundi easily tolerate many environments and have a flexible diet, attributes that led Time in 2011 to call them “just about perfect” as a farmed species. Once the fish reach nearly two pounds, they’ll be shipped live to seafood markets and restaurants across the country, or filleted, flash-frozen, and sent to food distributors like Sysco.

この蚘事は Mother Jones の January/February 2017 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

この蚘事は Mother Jones の January/February 2017 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

MOTHER JONESのその他の蚘事すべお衚瀺
Food + Health / Global Warning - Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making
Mother Jones

Food + Health / Global Warning - Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making

When President Joe Biden took office, Democrats held a slim majority in the House of Representatives and a single-vote edge in the Senate. Despite the monumental odds, he has presided over the most productive presidential term for climate action in American history. Under Biden’s direction, the federal government took up the arduous task of incorporating climate considerations into scores of administrative operations and procedures. The epa cracked down on superpollutants and issued stricter emissions regulations for passenger vehicles. The Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate spending bill Congress has ever passed, brings the nation closer to its goal of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2030.

time-read
5 分  |
November/December 2024
Trumpnesia - To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.
Mother Jones

Trumpnesia - To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.

One of the most oft-quoted sentences ever penned by a philosopher is George Santayana’s observation that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In 2024, this aphorism is practically a campaign slogan. Donald Trump, seeking to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland to return to the White House after being voted out of the job, has waged war on remembrance. In fact, he’s depending on tens of millions of voters forgetting the recent past. This election is an experiment in how powerful a memory hole can be.

time-read
6 分  |
November/December 2024
WHEN IN DROUGHT
Mother Jones

WHEN IN DROUGHT

This obscure yet adaptable grain could be a healthy staple for a warming planet.

time-read
3 分  |
November/December 2024
BAD HABITS
Mother Jones

BAD HABITS

A spate of recent horror movies recycle tired tropes about nuns-and reveal society's ongoing discomfort with independent women.

time-read
9 分  |
November/December 2024
Taking the Fifth For a glimpse of the Supreme Court after a second Trump term, look at the radical circuit court that's already driving America to the right.
Mother Jones

Taking the Fifth For a glimpse of the Supreme Court after a second Trump term, look at the radical circuit court that's already driving America to the right.

Imagine obamacare is dead and millions of Americans have lost health coverage.

time-read
10+ 分  |
November/December 2024
THE ARCHITECT
Mother Jones

THE ARCHITECT

TRUMP WANTS TO BE KING. RUSS VOUGHT HAS A PLAN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

time-read
10+ 分  |
November/December 2024
Losing Faith
Mother Jones

Losing Faith

As an evangelical leader, I enticed lawmakers and federal judges to adopt a conservative Christian agenda. Donald Trump’s rise proved how wrong I was.

time-read
10+ 分  |
November/December 2024
GOD'S COUNTRY
Mother Jones

GOD'S COUNTRY

These Christian nationalists have a plan to take over Americafrom small towns to the highest court in the land.

time-read
10+ 分  |
November/December 2024
IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER
Mother Jones

IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER

How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender

time-read
6 分  |
November/December 2024
KILL THE MESSENGER
Mother Jones

KILL THE MESSENGER

The anti-disinformation field is retreating under attack.

time-read
6 分  |
November/December 2024