Category — Aquaculture

Why aquaponics may be the future of urban farming, and one solution to our local food problem.

Adam Starr
GOOD Blog
January 12, 2010

Excerpts:

Cityscape hopes to launch its first farm in the first half of 2010. Their aquaponic greenhouses would be built in vacant lots and on rooftops. To start out, they are considering sites in San Francisco’s sunnier southern and eastern zones to capture plentiful solar energy. To monetize, Cityscape will serve as a wholesaler to local distributors and restaurants as well as operate a weekly farmers market. Yohay says there is interest from Bay Area restaurants enthusiastic about hyper-local and organic produce like strawberries and tomatoes being produced even in the off-season. That’s another advantage of hydroponic farming: the changing temperatures and seasons do not limit the indoor growing cycles.

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Part 1. The Sweet Water Organics fish vegetable farm is in a 10,000 sq. ft. old Milwaukee factory building.

Sweet Water Organics

“Sweet Water Organics is the first major commercial upgrading of MacArthur genius Will Allen’s aquaculture methodologies, i.e. a three-tiered, aquaponic, bio-intensive fish-vegetable garden. Sweet Water is the anchor project in the transformation of a massive industrial building in an “industrial slum” into a show-case of the potential of living technologies and high-value added urban agriculture.

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Kenyan project. Larger image here.

Aquaponic Greenhouse Prototype for Kenya

By Faith And Sustainable Technologies

Prototype aquaponic (combination of hydroponics and aquaculture) system using 700 gallon elevated ferro-cement flood tank technology developed by Travis W. Hughey which uses no float switches, electronic timers or microprocessors to control the flood and drain parameters of the system. It is a large version of the flood tank in the “Barrel-Ponics” manual found on this site as a free download. The system uses approximately 400 gallons of water per flood cycle. There are 37 barrel half growbeds also of Travis’s design incorporated. In the shallow pond water hyacinth and water lettuce are grown for fish feed.

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Photo by Tyler Anderson/National Post

For the past six years, staff at Scadding Park Community Centre have drained the pool of its chlorinated water, filled it with freshwater and dumped in 1,000 rainbow trout for a week of fishing.

So instead of taking people to the fish, Scadding Court brings the fish to them. Several school groups stream through each day; the pool is also open to the public after school hours for $8 per person. Two fish are included in the price, but gutting costs an extra 75 ¢.

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Farm Fountain is a collaborative project by artists Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs. See their beautiful videos, photos and a web cam!

Farm Fountain is a system for growing edible and ornamental fish and plants in a constructed, indoor ecosystem. Based on the concept of aquaponics, this hanging garden fountain uses a simple pond pump, along with gravity to flow the nutrients from fish waste through the plant roots. The plants and bacteria in the system serve to cleanse and purify the water for the fish.

This project is an experiment in local, sustainable agriculture and recycling. It utilizes 2-liter plastic soda bottles as planters and continuously recycles the water in the system to create a symbiotic relationship between edible plants, fish and humans.

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“I currently have in my backyard, a facility that I designed and built myself, that is capable of producing about 2000 pounds of tilapia per year. That is over 38 pounds of fish per week!

“These are the 500 gallon pools; the big 5000 gallon tank and the 400 gallon ‘catch of the day’ tank are on the other side of the storage sheds. Check out the tomato plants on the left, the fruit bearing banana in the center, and the papaya right in front of it. What you don’t see are the red onions, the pineapple, the chilli peppers, the red and green bell peppers, the thyme, parsley, greek oregano, sugar cane, and cilantro plants. Outside I have Mandarin oranges, Valencia oranges, grapefruit, Japanese plum, cassava (yuca), and blackberry plants.”

Go to the web site of Edgar F. Sanchez, Orlando, Florida; owner of Tilapia Vita Farms.

“Ecocity Farm is an improved aquaponics system of food production which combines the breeding of fish with the growing of vegetables and, importantly, is designed for use in areas where farmland is at a premium – namely the urban, village and suburban environments where 75 per cent of the world’s population live.

“The Ecocity Farm produces more food per square metre than any other farming system, because unlike existing aquaponic systems, the Ecocity Farm produces little to no waste. All solid wastes within the system are converted into nutrients (through a biofilter) and used to “nourish” the vegetables. The system is also drought proof as all water is continually recycled within the system.”

Link to short video. Video loads slowly.

“Will’s newest aquaculture houses are built in simple plastic hoop houses with the fish tanks buried in the ground to increase insulation and allow the use of inexpensive pond liner vs. stand alone tanks in an attempt to cut costs and reduce energy inputs. The last greenhouse system he took us through was built for $5000 plus labor, and several hundred pots of greens and vegetables that were basking in the warm humid air.” 

Link to this article about Growing Power.

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