Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Intensive animal farming, industrial livestock production, and macro-farms, [1] also known (particularly by opponents) as factory farming, [2] is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production while minimizing costs. [3]
The main benefit of RAS is the ability to reduce the need for fresh, clean water while still maintaining a healthy environment for fish. To be operated economically commercial RAS must have high fish stocking densities, and many researchers are currently conducting studies to determine if RAS is a viable form of intensive aquaculture. [3]
"Integrated" refers to intensive and synergistic cultivation, using water-borne nutrient and energy transfer. "Multi-trophic" means that the various species occupy different trophic levels, i.e., different (but adjacent) links in the food chain.
They include extensive, semi-intensive and intensive systems. [13] Extensive aquaculture systems are usually conducted in medium-to-large-sized ponds or water bodies. The fish production depends on the natural productivity of the water, making this system low cost and maintenance. With semi-intensive fish farming, the production of fish per ...
Farmed fish can also spread disease to wild populations, or escape from their confines and breed with other species, resulting in genetic pollution that can disrupt the fitness of a wild population.
Extensive farming can have the following problems: [3] Yields tend to be much lower than with intensive farming in the short term. Large land requirements limit the habitat of wild species (in some cases, even very low stocking rates can be dangerous), as is the case with intensive farming. Less profitable then intensive farming per square acreage.
Extensive culture aquaculture systems are simple and with low levels of intervention. An example of this would be a salty dam, lake or pond stocked with trout, where no food is needed to be added as the fish can feed off what naturally occurs in the water.
Davis notes that there have been concerns about fish farming, also known as aquaculture. But she points to "significant advances" in the practice that have made it "more sustainable and cleaner ...