United Soybean Board - Aquaculture Industry Coalition Meeting
The USB-Aquaculture Industry Coalition held its seventh annual meeting on March 3, 2011, during the Aquaculture America 2011 conference. The industry was represented by an estimated 150 soybean processors, aquafeed millers, ingredients and equipment manufacturers, fish farmers, aquaculture association officers, university, federal and private researchers, private consultants and state aquaculture extension, coordinators and Sea Grant officials and state and federal employees. Soybean farmers were represented by grower-leaders and state and national staffs. The program was opened by Gil Griffis, the Soy in Aquaculture New Uses Consultant for the United Soybean Board. He said the Coalition is primarily "an educational forum for the sharing of ideas and defining problems on which we can work together to solve. Our mutual goal is to build stronger our domestic soybean and fish growing industries and the many firms and programs that support them".
The idea for a Coalition came from soybean farmers, who want to bring closer the day when soybean meal and soy protein concentrates can become an even more important nutritional, economical, renewable and environment-friendly source of protein in all fish rations. Initial support for the Coalition came from fish farmers, who wanted to grow and market more of their production in the United States, from the many industries that supported them, and from state and federal researchers who wanted to solve problems that limited fish production and soy inclusion rates. Participation in the Coalition meeting has grown from 30 at the initial meeting in 2005 to over 150 attending the event in New Orleans.
The program:
The Rise and Rise of the Poultry Industry -Mr. Rod Smith, staff editor, Feedstuffs
U.S. Trout Industry Looks Ahead - Mr. Charlie Conklin, owner Big Brown Hatchery, Inc., and President, the U.S. Trout Farmers’ Association
U.S. Catfish – Decade of Change - Mr. Randy Rhodes, President, Harvest Select Catfish Company
U.S. Shellfish Challenges & Opportunities - Mr. Bill Dewey, Manager of Public Policy and Communications for Taylor Shellfish Farms
Present and Projected State of the Industry - Dr. Michael Rubino, Manager NOAA Aquaculture Program
Next Generation Open Ocean Mariculture - Mr. Bill Spencer, CEO, Hawaii Oceanic Technology, Inc.
Salmon in Maine & the Cod Institute - Dr. Sebastian Belle, Executive Director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, and President, Econ-Aqua
Growing More Beans to Meet More Demand - Ms. Karen Fear, a soybean farmer from Montpelier, IN and a director with The United Soybean Board
Sustainable Aquaculture: Think Soybeans - Dr. Tom Clemente, Manager of the Plant Transformation Core Research Facility, Professor, University of Nebraska’s Department of Agronomy and Horticulture/Center for Plant Science Innovation,
Alternative Ingredients for Aquafeeds - Dr. Rick Barrows, Lead Scientist USDA/ARS Trout-Grains Project at the Bozeman Fish Technology Center, Bozeman, MT
Beyond PPA? - Dr. Diane Bellis, Director of Federal Research Programs, AgSource, Inc. in Washington, DC.
The Future of Aquafeeds Report Summary - Dr. Michael Rust, Aquaculture Research Program Manager, NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA
AquaBounty’s AquaAdvantage Salmon - Dr. John Buchanan, of Research and Development for AquaBounty Technologies
Download the full SUMMARY REPORT by Gil Griffis, the Soy in Aquaculture New Uses Consultant for the United Soybean Board from the link below (PDF).
Enquiries: editor@aquafeed.com
For more information about the USB-Aquaculture Coalition please contact Gil Griffis. Visit the USB Soy in Aquaculture Website at: www.soyaqua.org
