An Adventure in Aquaponics
By Melissa Mansfield | October 8, 2010 at 2:35 pm
By the time this blog is posted, I’ll be on the Big Island in Hawaii getting a fast-track immersion in aquaponics. I’ll be visiting Friendly Aquaponics to film a short documentary about how their work is helping Hawaii and communities around the world create food security and bolster their local economies.
I’m new to aquaponics, so this is an exciting chance to learn more.
We’ll be staying with the family who runs the farm – along with nine interns, four children, a whole bunch of animals (including 14 Siamese cats and some Shire horses!), and various other human visitors who are in town for the four-day commercial aquaponics training they’re offering. It will be my first time in Hawaii, which makes it even more exciting!
What is aquaponics?
Friendly Aquaponics explains it well: “Aquaponics is a sustainable food production system that combines aquaculture (raising fish in tanks) and hydroponics (growing plants in water) so that both grow better. Aquaponics systems are miniature human-made ecosystems: there are mosquito fish, prawns, tilapia, water fleas, and little red worms in our systems.”
So, how does it work? Here’s a 3rd-grader explanation: you raise fish, whose poop fertilizes the plants, who in turn clean the water that the fish live in.
The aquaponics company Nelson + Pade does a good job of describing the process in grown-up terms:
“Aquaponics is a completely natural process which mimics all lakes, ponds, rivers and waterways on earth. The only input to an aquaponic system is fish food. The fish eat the food and excrete waste, which is converted (by beneficial bacteria) to a form that plants can use. In consuming these nutrients, the plants help to purify the water. You cannot use herbicides, pesticides or other harsh chemicals in an aquaponic system, [therefore] the fish and plants are healthful and safe to eat.”
At Friendly Aquaponics, they develop DIY systems so that people can learn to grow their own food, even if they don’t have much land.
This is a vital approach, in light of food issues that we’re all facing.
Right now, Hawaii imports 90 percent of their food. They are almost completely dependent on outside sources for this key survival need. In the rest of the U.S., most food in the grocery store has been imported from 1,000-3,000 miles away.
Across the globe, people’s access to food is endangered by pollution, war, politics or corporate control. Food security – the idea that you have the means and resources to have enough to eat – is a crisis for many of the world’s citizens and a potential problem for citizens of developed countries who may have never worried about where their food comes from in the past, but are now dependent on an increasingly complex global system.
At the heart of the matter is that food security should be a human right. And if we have the processes and resources in place, every individual, family or community can grow some or all of their food – making them independent of larger societal forces or powerful institutions that they often have little control over. Local food – grown, eaten or sold in the community – also bolsters local economies.
As far as the environmental impacts go, Friendly Aquaponics cites these impressive statistics:
- Aquaponics uses less than 2 percent of the water that traditional farming does.
- It’s energy-efficient: our current systems use one-tenth of the energy conventional farming does!
- It has eight to 10 times more vegetable production in the same area and time.
- It’s pure, clean and natural: USDA Certified Organic and Food Safety Certified.
I’m looking forward to seeing these systems first-hand, learning about the challenges and successes of running an aquaponics farm or business, and meeting workshop attendees from around the world who are starting up their own systems.
Stay tuned for more updates, pictures, and possibly some video clips!
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