I need HELP!!! ASAP!!!
You are asked to write an essay on aquaculture using this passage as a source. Which paragraph best supports the claim that aquaculture has some drawbacks?
1 If you enjoy eating baked fish, shrimp gumbo, crab cakes, or boiled lobster, you're in luck. Nutritionists say that seafood is healthier to eat than other kinds of animal protein. It is low in fat and cholesterol, and high in the omega-3 oils that promote both heart health and brain development. Current United States Department of Agriculture guidelines suggest that Americans eat two to three seafood meals a week ("Let's Eat" 2). Unfortunately, most Americans do not consume that amount of fish.
2 However, even if Americans were willing to eat more fish, would the world's seas be able to provide it? Many places in the world are already fished to their limits, and many native fish populations are dwindling to record lows. In order to meet even current global consumption rates, experts at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimate that the world will need another forty million tons of seafood per year by 2030 ("Basic Questions" 4). Where will all this fish come from? Many people think that the answer is aquaculture.
3 Aquaculture is the science and practice of growing fish for food; in other words, aquaculture is fish farming. Like plant farmers, fish farmers oversee the natural life cycle of what they farm. Fish farmers “plant” (or hatch) their “crops” (fish) in “fields” (places called hatcheries). Farmers feed the tiny fish and protect them from predators. In aquaculture, as in agriculture, food is produced in a controlled environment rather than gathered from the wild.
4 Aquaculture is not experimental, and it is not new (Rabanal, "History of Aquaculture"). As early as 2000 B.C.E. the Chinese raised a species of fish called carp. Around the same time, Egyptians cultured tilapia, a species still grown in many countries. Both the Mayans and the Romans cultured fish in ponds and canals. It wasn't until 1850, however, that fish were farmed in the United States. These early farmed fish were only for the purpose of stocking lakes for recreation. It wasn't until the twentieth century that Americans began to farm fish for food (Rabanal, "History of Aquaculture").
5 Farming fish is much more efficient than farming beef or pork. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “Aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways to produce protein.” Take a look at these facts ("Basic Questions" 3).
It takes 8.7 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of beef.
It takes 5.9 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of pork.
It takes 1.9 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of chicken.
It takes 1.2 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of salmon.
The Demand for Fish
6 According to the NOAA, global aquaculture currently supplies about fifty percent of all seafood produced for human consumption ("Basic Questions" 4). This number is growing, and it will continue to increase.
7 United States aquaculture meets only five to seven percent of the domestic demand for seafood ("Basic Questions" 13). Most farmed fish is from Asia. As this chart clearly shows, China is far in the lead in aquaculture. In fact, all top five aquaculture producing countries are in Asia. While aquaculture lags overall in the United States, fish farms can now be found in all fifty states. States with the largest production of marine aquaculture are Maine, Washington, Virginia, Louisiana, and Hawaii. The largest freshwater producers are Mississippi and Idaho ("Basic Questions" 14).
8 Like so many modern innovations, aquaculture solves certain problems while it creates a few new ones. Opponents of aquaculture claim that farmed fish can transfer diseases and parasites to wild fish populations if the two environments mix. Similarly, if farmed fish breed with native species, the native species' genetic makeup might be altered and their populations significantly weakened. Opponents argue that aquaculture threatens the livelihoods of traditional fishermen and that more aquaculture farms and processing plants will destroy the aesthetic beauty of our coastlines. These people fear that farmed fish could be dangerous, unnatural, or even unethical, and that these “Frankenfish” could trigger an ecological disaster ("Pros and Cons").
9 Supporters of aquaculture argue that farmed fishing has many benefits. Aquaculture, they say, improves the world's health by feeding more people and helps save diminishing wild fish populations. In addition, aquaculture provides steady year-round employment to thousands of people, including farmers, processors, inspectors, and transporters ("Basic Questions" 2). So, the next time you're at the fish counter at your grocery store or at a local seafood market, before you make a decision, look for the source of your purchase on the label or on the sign.
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