in south america, the farmers supplement their food sources with ponds with tilapia. They use animal manure as feed.
True and not true. They use animal manure to fertilize the ponds. The fertilizer produces algae and diatoms, and the tilapia, being filter feeders, feed of these higher order animals.
Same with China; but the Chinese don't give a hoot what else they throw in the ponds.
The imported catfish is mostly Pangasius from Vietnam, raised in the Mekong river and tributaries. Not a clean environment.
There is no amount of money you can pay me to eat the frozen imported stuff from China or other Far east countries. That said, the tilapia from Ecuador, Costa Rica and Honduras is all produced using modern production methods, and that's why they are three times as expensive as the frozen Chicom garbage.
We've lost about a third of our catfish acreage in this country due to competition from the cheap imported stuff.
You get what you pay for. The funny thing is that almost all the tilapia I produce is bought by Chinese and Mexicans in this country -- they are willing to pay the price for quality. White people want it as cheap as the frozen garbage at Wal-Mart, or they won't buy. Which is funny as heck.
