Inside Urban Green

Aquaponics Now Has an International Organization

Perhaps you have seen articles about aquaponics in the media. Just a little bit of web research shows that aquaponics is definitely a hot topic in urban food communities across the country and around the world. 



Aquaponics (prior posts) is a food growing method that combines aquaculture (the raising of fish) in a symbiotic relationship with hydroponic plant growing. The fish waste provides nutrients to the plants.

The movement is now organized under the banner of the recently formed Aquaponics Association. They have a very active website and an Annual Conference. The second annual conference will be in Denver, Colorado, September 22-23, 2012. Last years conference was held in Orlando, Fl in September. They also conduct workshops and tours throughout the year.

The association already has over 4,000 members (they call themselves "aquapons") and is adding them at the rate of about 15 per day. These are impressive numbers and a testimony to the importance of aquaponics as both a small business and personal food production method.

As you may know, two of the most publicized aquaponics businesses are Growing Power and Sweet Water Organics in Milwaukee. Growing Power also has a facility in Chicago called Iron Street Farm.

Stay tuned. The veggies are growing and the fish are swimming close by.

Marianne Cufone » Recirculating Farms Coalition

Marianne Cufone is Executive Director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition and now lives in New Orleans. She spoke at the recent TEDxManhattan event "Changing the Way We Eat" this past Saturday. I regret not being well enough to attend and meet Marianne and other participants.

The TEDxManhattan video of her presentation will be uploaded in the coming weeks. In the meantime you can learn about the coalition in this video featuring Marianne. It is a look into the future of urban agriculture and more than likely a peek into the future of personal food production.

Few people understand that sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) are actually highly productive and versatile hydroponic micro recirculating farms for personal food production. They save water and can also save the lives of children who might otherwise be exposed to lead poisoning from often-contaminated city soil.

Thanks to the rather dumbed down consumer horticulture education system in the U.S. people (including the USDA Extension Program) call them "self-watering" planters. If there is a horticultural "ignorance barometer" in the U.S., the widespread usage of this term is it.

Fishy Pix From the Past

Speaking of fish, here are some fishy photos from the past. They are from the Shorpy.com vintage photo blog. Photos like these are in my inbox every morning. It's coffee and Shorpy time. This is a link to a Shorpy search on "fish".

The Shorpy photos are particularly interesting in that you can enlarge them to full screen and see some interesting details that are not visible in smaller photos. Read the comments too. They are mostly by guys and some rather sexist more in tune with the older times of the photos. Then again...maybe not so old.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1905. "Handling a cargo from the fishing banks." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.
via www.shorpy.com

September 1926. "Thos. R. Shipp Co. -- C.H. Javins stand." The Charles Javins seafood stand in our second look today at Washington's old Center Market. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. February 1913. Bluffton, South Carolina. "Varn & Platt Canning Co. 10-year-old Jimmie. Been shucking 3 years. 6 pots a day, and a 11-year-old boy who shucks 7 pots. Also several members of an interesting family named Sherrica. Seven of them are in this factory. The father, mother, four girls shuck and pack. Older brother steams. 10 year old boy goes to school. Been in the oyster business 5 years. Father worked for 25 years in the Pennsylvania Coal Mine, and the oldest brother there. They said they liked the oysters business better because the family makes more." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Wild Fish » The End of the Line?

Fish are the last wild food, but our oceans are being picked clean. Can farming fish take the place of catching them? Photograph by James Wojcik for TIME

It has been amazing to experience the changes in technology in my lifetime. The rate of change has been unprecedented in recorded history and is only getting faster.

Not so positive is the change in the supply of fresh, affordable seafood. I would be happy to eat only seafood and no meat. However, I will not pay the outrageous prices that now exist for lobster and salmon for example. So, I enjoy my calamari and surimi (aka imitation crab) instead.

I grew up on Long Island. I can well remember coming home from the Hempstead Town Beach at Point Lookout during the summer. We usually bought fresh corn and soft shell (steamer) clams on the way. They cost next to nothing.

Another point of reference that I well remember was the lobster we bought on my father’s 65th birthday in 1964. It was about 10 pounds and cost a dollar a pound as I recall. At that time, the bigger the lobster the lower was the price per pound. I can still see it in our bathtub before the incredible feast we enjoyed.

Will we be able to produce fish by aquaculture in an environmentally sound way and make it more affordable in the future? It is interesting to observe the ever-growing interest in aquaponics as a local food source for both fish and vegetables. This technology gives hope for the future but is obviously still in its infancy.    

 
via www.time.com

Josh Goldman runs a fish farm, but the hangar-size facility in the western Massachusetts town of Turners Falls looks a lot less like a farm than a factory. Thousands of one-third-pound barramundi — an omnivorous fish native to Southeast Asia and Australia — swim in a 36-ft.-diameter tank that resembles a supersize kiddie pool. They spend their days fattening up on feed pellets under the watchful eyes of factory workers — farmers, if you must — who grade them for size. After several weeks of careful feeding, the fish are moved via an industrial waterslide — the pescalator, Goldman calls it — to a larger tank in the plant's next cavernous room. The assembly line runs until the barramundi have been raised to market weight, about 2 lb., after which they're sent off to white-tablecloth seafood restaurants and sustainability-minded retail outlets across the U.S.

Urban Aquaculture » Prawns in the City?

This is most interesting. Raising prawns or shrimp is not one of my life experiences. Fresh water prawn aquaculture is common in China but not so much in the U.S.

Will The Prawn Shop be a viable business in the new age of local urban food? Will there be others? What about prawn aquaponics? Stay tuned.

via www.kitsapsun.com

BALTIMORE (AP) — In an old cinderblock building near the foot of 36th Street in Hampden, the latest addition to Baltimore's urban farming push is under construction.

London » FARM:shop Progress Video

The video was shot this past December. The FARM:shop is now open and apparently thriving.

It appears that there may be lighting issues regarding the nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics wall system and the indoor plant vertical garden in the stairwell. Time will tell as it always does when growing plants inside buildings. Light is the limiting factor. The best thing to do is to measure the light with a light meter before planting.

Also note that there are no solid media (artificial soil) based sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). In my view that is a significant omission in what I view as a very progressive urban food production project.

There is also a comprehensive Flickr photo set by AlexandraMPayne a New Yorker who worked at the FARM:shop as a volunteer.

via www.youtube.com