Jail-Raised Tilapia Innocent Until Proven GILL-ty

By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 14, 2012 4:40PM

Menus are awash in glowing words to describe the living conditions of meat. Free range, cage free, humane, natural; all good things. What will chefs come up with to describe the Tilapia soon to be farmed by inmates in Cook County? Luckily, there are plenty of jail-type words for fish: penned, netted, trapped. Expect to see them all in use soon.

The plan to raise fish at the Cook County Sheriff's Boot Camp was announced last Thursday night by Sheriff Tom Dart. Inmates already grow vegetables (some of which are served at Charlie Trotter's) and now the plan is to start a companion Tilapia farm and to use the waste as fertilizer.

We've never been able to get all that enthusiastic about Tilapia, but it's sustainable and inexpensive. More and more chefs are adding it to menus, and this move by the County will make finding a hyper-local source of Tilapia much much easier. The tanks will be stocked in a few weeks; expect to see the fish on menus soon.