Fish meal

Fish meal, sometimes spelt fishmeal, is a commercial product made from whole wild-caught fish, bycatch, and fish by-products to feed farm animals, e.g., pigs, poultry, and farmed fish.^[1] Because it is calorically dense and cheap to produce, fishmeal has played a critical role in the growth of factory farms and the number of farm animals it is possible to breed and feed.^{[citation needed]}

Fishmeal takes the form of powder or cake. This form is obtained by drying the fish or fish trimmings, and then grinding it. If the fish used is a fatty fish it is first pressed to extract most of the fish oil.^[1][2]

The production and large-scale use of fishmeal are controversial. The lucrative market for fishmeal as a feed encourages corporate fisheries not to limit their yields of by-catch (from which fish meal is made), and thus leads to depletion of ecosystems, environmental damage, and the collapse of local fisheries.^{[citation needed]} Its role in facilitating the breeding and over-feeding of millions of pigs and chickens on factory farms has also been criticized by animal rights and animal welfare groups.^{[citation needed]} Manufacturers of fishmeal counter that fishmeal's role in the feeding and breeding of millions of farm animals leads to the production of more food and the feeding of millions of people around the world.^{[citation needed]}