New inland fish and shrimp farms are popping up throughout the interior of the United States.

Some have the goal of being organic. Others are committed to also being environmentally sound. They grow shrimp or fish without chemicals or hormones in a controlled environment to prevent disease and contamination of ground water. They even raise their own babies and feed them chemical-free fish grown in the same farm.

Food & Water Watch visited one such organic farm –– read below about the visit. If you see U.S. farmed shrimp, it's a good alternative to imported shrimp. These entrepreneurs learned from the mistakes of coastal shrimp aquaculture and do not want to repeat that.

Currently, there are no organic standards for seafood, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently developing organic standards for farm–raised seafood. Those standards are expected to be complete by the fall of 2007.

There are other inland fish production systems that raise familiar fish, such as catfish and tilapia. Find out more about these operations –– some are good and some are not!

Case Study: OceanBoy

OceanBoy, a shrimp farm located in Florida, markets its shrimp as organic––no chemicals or hormones are used and they are grown in a very controlled environment to prevent disease and contamination from ground water and the surrounding environment (although the ponds are open-aired). Click here to find out how this farm operates.

• The original farm, La Belle, was first established in 2001, with 185 acres, 105 cleared for use. Primarily an experimental farm, the business lost 50% of its crop the first year due to water temperature and salinity levels.
• Little Cyprus is 900 acres with 24 4–acre ponds and expanded with another 50 4–acre plots to total 296 used acres by the end of 2005.
• OceanBoy plans to purchase an additional 700–800 acres for another farm, called Green Farm, which will have 75 4–acre ponds. Another farm, Arcadia, raises organic tilapia. That farm consists of 21 3–acre ponds with 750,000 pounds of tilapia grown in cages.

Due to bio–security reasons, as they called it, OceanBoy raises its own broodstock and larvae and algae keep out viruses and bacteria. All vehicles must drive through chlorine baths and employees are subject to perpetual hand washing. The farm does not smell whatsoever. OceanBoy knows of only a few other truly closed systems in the world. We will make another trip down during the harvest and at that time, possibly see the Tilapia farm. They have not yet turned a profit yet; but they hope to this year. Its shrimp is on sale at several chains, including Publix in Florida, Whole Foods in California. Lunds in Minnesota, Kings in New Jersey, and Harris Teeter in North Carolina.