Salmon in tanks, lettuce under glass disrupt the food chain

 Salmon aren’t supposed to be swimming here. The lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens also are out of place.A 3-acre greenhouse, nearly twice the length of a football field, glows purple from its more than 1,100 LED grow lights — a sight that turns the heads of passing motorists on Interstate 94 at night. The lights, with cloud-based software, help mimic California’s Salinas Valley.Next door, the North Atlantic Ocean is replicated in a one-acre fish house. Thousands of Atlantic salmon, some newly hatched from eggs sourced in Iceland, others nearly 10 pounds after two years, are raised in 22,000-gallon tanks filled with fresh water drawn from a 180-foot-deep well.About 95 percent of the Atlantic salmon consumed in the U.S. is imported, primarily from Norway and Chile, while about 90 percent of the lettuce grown in the U.S. comes from traditional farm fields, mainly in California and Arizona.But just up the hill from an abandoned schoolhouse in the rolling hills of west central Wisconsin about 33 miles southeast of Eau Claire, 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of salmon are harvested each week and 1.5 million pounds of leafy greens each year. And it’s all being sold to grocers, restaurants and wholesalers within a 400-mile radius of Jackson County.