Jennifer Miller

jenmille@dmreg.com

Jeff and Mark Nelson probably wouldn't be insulted to be called Iowa farm boys. They'd probably barely acknowledge a tag of shrewd businessmen with a half-smile. And they might chuckle a little if you called them visionaries, like most Iowa farm boys would.

Still, there's truth in all those monikers, and the fact that they named their Blairsburg fish-farming business "Iowa's First" shows a certain level of self-awareness and pride in a forward-thinking strategy. The fact that they opened a fish-farming business at all speaks to their grasp of basic business principles — empty buildings don't produce income — and of The Big Picture, which illustrates resources being sucked up at an alarming rate and a human world population that is hurtling toward 8 billion.

The Nelsons also noticed that in the food world, no word seemed to resound as firmly as "local."

"As far as natural resources go," Jeff said, "oil is our No. 1 trade deficit. No. 2 is seafood. Eighty-five to 90 percent of the seafood we eat in this country is imported."

'It just sort of clicked'

The Nelsons are cousins whose fathers began farming with the assortment of critters and crops common to mid-20th century farms — hogs, chickens, cattle, corn, dairy. That's what the cousins knew and that's what they did, too. You wouldn't think that working a booth at the annual Pork Congress would change that, but it did.

"I was set up next to a company called Cablevey," Mark, 57, said. "They had a photo of a fish-feeding system and when they showed it to me, it just sort of clicked.

"We already had a hog barn that was sitting empty; it's really too small for today's standard hog operation, but the size and dimensions were just right for fish. I told Jeff I had an idea." Jeff, 54, said he was game.

That was in 2009. The duo spent nearly three years doing research on the industry, traveling to fish farms all over the country and looking at different systems; learning about fish species; and going to aquaculture shows. They settled on a fish — hybrid striped bass — and a low-maintenance recirculating system.

"We really liked the simplicity of it," Jeff said. "And it's sturdy; we saw some tanks that were still in use after 20 years." They sold their first fish in March of 2012.

"People from all over the world come to see our system," Mark added. "One guy's system had 80 motors and it took two people (on duty) 24/7 to manage it. We have eight motors for the same size farm."

On a day-to-day basis, Iowa's First is mostly managed by Jeff's son Brent, 23, Mark's daughter Grace, 21, and future son-in-law Matt Clarken, 24, (who is engaged to Mark's daughter Kelsey).

From bass to barramundi

Over the course of the last year or so, the Nelsons have decided, again, to head in a new direction. Within a few months, the last of their hybrid striped bass will be sold and eaten. All the facility's tanks will be full of barramundi, a favorite eating fish in Australia and Southeast Asia, but fairly uncommon in the United States. Most of the fish species that are farmed for consumer consumption here (as opposed to pond stocking and sport fishing) are catfish and tilapia.

But after raising the hybrid striped bass, and doing more research, Brent Nelson said they are making the change (and expanding the facility) for several reasons — that all go back to one.

"Barramundi is just a better fish," he said. "It's better to eat, it's better genetically. Bass are very stress intolerant, too."

Another advantage of the Nelson's barramundi system, said Clarken (the future son-in-law) is that the "bio-security risks are zero."

While the bass came from pond hatcheries, the barramundi are hatched by an Australian company in tanks. Allen Pattillo, fisheries and aquaculture extension specialist for Iowa State University, says the tank model eliminates the unknowns that surround pond farms, including growth rate. In the Southern Hemisphere's oceans, a barramundi would take about three years to reach a marketable weight, he said. In Blairsburg, that fish will be ready for plates in seven months.

From a food safety standpoint, tanks also win. "Ponds are subject to the environment — whatever's in the groundwater, chemical overspray, weather," Patillo said. "With this method you get complete control over every factor."

For fish eaters, this may be the biggest selling point of all. Contaminants are eliminated in the closed system and no prophylactic antibiotics are used in the process at Iowa's First.

Added benefit: Runs on air

Aside from those benefits, Patillo said one of the beauties of the Nelsons' system is that it runs on air, which requires little energy to generate. "And it does two things at once. It provides power and aeration. It's very efficient."

An elevator-speech version of the system goes something like this: Water is pumped from a well through a series of tanks that warm it and oxygenate it. The water is then pumped into the tanks, where it recirculates, passes through filters that collect the waste and use fish-friendly bacteria to convert the waste's ammonia to nitrates, which (unless excessive) are safe for fish. Then the water heads back to the tanks. The minimal wastewater created is pumped to a lagoon and then used to irrigate a few small crop fields near the facility.

The 30,000 or so baby fish that fly over in a wide-body jet from Australia each week start life at Iowa's First at about a half-inch long and weigh about .1 gram. They are sized every three days and moved to different tanks as appropriate because bigger barramundi enjoy snacking on smaller ones. The fish double in size about every week. The Nelsons' goal is to sell 2- to 2.2-pound fish, each of which will yield about 8 ounces of fileted meat. As the operation gears up to full speed in the next few months, the Nelsons say about 100,000 tiny barramundi will be making the weekly plane trip from Australia to Minneapolis, where the farmers pick them up.

'Just so much opportunity'

For people who pay attention to such things, "farmed fish" conjures the same distaste as "factory-raised" meat, and not entirely without reason.

In a 2011 report, the General Accounting Office found that in fiscal 2009, the "FDA tested about 0.1 percent of all imported seafood products for drug residues." According to the Nelsons' research, 51 percent of that was rejected, and 20 percent of those rejections involved salmonella.

Because of these sorts of statistics, Jeff said, "farmed fish has gotten a bad reputation; when you're importing these fish, you have no idea what conditions they have been raised in."

Articles in Bloomberg Businessweek and Mother Jones have described Vietnamese shrimp iced with contaminated water and tilapia fed with pig feces.

"Even with wild-caught fish," he said, "there are concerns — about overfishing and events like the tsunami in Japan (that affect the water quality)."

Though the Nelsons have the led the way for food-fish farming in Iowa — particularly by growing barramundi — they hope that others see the value.

They welcome visitors and are happy to talk about what has worked so well for them. They see part of their jobs as being mentors.

"We'd love to see the industry expand in Iowa," Jeff said. "There's just so much opportunity. Fifteen or 20 years ago if you talked about tilapia, who would have known what you were talking about?"

Though barramundi may be in the same boat at the moment as tilapia once was, the Nelsons are betting that won't be the case for too much longer.

Iowa's First

FIND IT: 2567 190th St., Blairsburg, Ia.

INFO:www.iowasfirst.com

Q&A

What is barramundi?

Commonly eaten in Australia and Southeast Asia, barramundi is also known as Asian sea bass. It is a firm, white-flesh fish with a mild flavor, sometimes described as similar to halibut. It can live in fresh water or saltwater.

It is nutritious?

Per 6-ounce serving, barramundi has about 160 calories, 2.6 grams of fat and 33 grams of protein. It is nearly as high in omega-3 fatty acids (good fat) as salmon.

Is it sustainable?

Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch (www.seafoodwatch.org) gives U.S. farm-raised (in recirculating systems such as Iowa's First) barramundi its highest rating of "best choice." It does not recommend buying wild-caught barramundi from Indo­nesia (which you are unlikely to find in the U.S. anyway) because of population impacts and ineffective fisheries management. Australian barramundi is generally farmed and earns the group's "good alternative" seal.

Where can I buy barramundi?

The Nelsons are still getting their barramundi pipeline filled and expect to have the fish widely available (Hy-Vee stores will be carrying it) in the next few months. In the meantime, some Minneapolis restaurants are cooking with the fish, and Wheatsfield Coop in Ames and Story City Locker carry them as availability allows.

Off the Eaten Path

This occasional series tells the stories of places across Iowa that by the very fact of their existence can affect what and how we eat.

Why I chose Iowa's First

Culinarily speaking, Iowa is not ordinarily associated with fresh fish, let alone the farming of a tropical fish. But Iowa's First (aptly named) barramundi farm is not only expanding the idea of farming in Iowa, but creating a sustainable, safe and nutrient-dense food supply that has im­pli­cations way beyond Iowa. Aquaculture specialists see great potential for feeding an ex­plod­ing population in a way that treads light­ly on our in­creas­ingly stressed planet.

About the author

Jennifer Miller, a former Datebook Diner, is the Register's resident food expert, passionate about the local food scene. She calls herself a professional eater and not a half-bad cook. Have a story idea? Contact her at jenmille@dmreg.com, call 515-699-7073 or on Twitter @JenniFoodM.