Brown picked yellow perch because they produce the lowest-fat fish fillet in the United States and because without aquaculture, supply can't meet demand. The yellow perch population in the Great Lakes has plummeted so that current harvests are about one quarter of what they once were. With funding from the Indiana Soybean Board, Brown figured out which nutrients yellow perch need to grow properly, then found a way to get those nutrients out of a mix mostly made of soybeans and corn. When he compared growth of grain-fed perch to perch fed the highest quality fish meal, he found no difference. And the grain-fed perch produced quality fillets.
Trout make another good-quality fillet.
Fish farmers currently produce 60 million pounds of trout per year, and the market is growing. Soy-based feed could help bring more economical trout fillets to grocery counters. Brown came up with a feed formulation that, in small-scale trials, put a pound of meat on a trout for every pound of food the fish ate. The new trout food, developed with a regional grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is three-quarters soybean and corn meal, with some added fish oil. Eventually, Brown says, he'd like to replace the fish oil with oil from a plant such as canola.