Hog farmer learns to fin for himself.

• Author: Elmore, Cindy J.
• Position: People

R.C. Hunt hated to read the newspaper. It all seemed bad--much of it personal. "Every time I picked up the paper and read something about pollution, it was related to the livestock business," says the co-owner of Bailey-based Andrews Hunt Farms LLC, which produces 110,000 pigs and hogs a year.

So he decided to diversify. He hit the books, called on university expertise and settled on aquaculture. Now Hunt, 50, farms fish as president and managing partner of Southern Farm Tilapia LLC in Bailey. The fish are kept in tanks and buildings from egg to harvest and live in water that is continuously cleaned and recirculated. The waste fertilizes fields that provide grass for 150 beef cattle.

Seven years after opening, it is among the nation's top five farms in tilapia production. A mild-flavored, white-fleshed fish native to Africa and the Middle East, tilapia is ninth in U.S. fish consumption behind stalwarts such as salmon and catfish. Southern Farm will produce 2 million pounds this year and can process 10 million pounds for restaurants and seafood distributors. With the state's only processing plant, it processes tilapia from competing farms, too. Most of what he raises, though, is shipped live by truck in huge water-filled tanks destined for East Coast restaurants and Asian-food markets.

Opening the state's first tilapia hatchery wasn't without risks, but he tried to minimize them. When he needed expertise, he turned to his alma mater, N.C. State University, and six other schools, using their research and laboratory prototypes, some of which he paid for, some of which were...