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Aquaponics fertilizes plant crops with bacteria-treated fish waste products. The plants return the favor by filtering the fish's water—and humans can eat both of them
August 28, 2008 | 14
In the aquaponic greenhouse at Cabbage Hill Farm in Mount Kisco, N.Y., tankfuls of edible fish serve a dual purpose: They produce thousands of pounds of salable food fish each year which, as they grow to market size, excrete metabolic by-products that are harnessed to fertilize high-value vegetable crops....[More]
Tilapia rise to the surface in one of Cabbage Hill's tanks. A consumer favorite, the hardy species, amenable to high-density living environments, lends itself well to aquaponics....[More]
Cabbage Hill's Kevin Ferry lifts young bass from one of the aquaponic tanks. The fish take about 11 months to reach market size from one-inch (2.5-centimeter) fingerlings, during which time they will have fertilized several rounds of vegetable crops....[More]
A net full of nearly market-size bass is much more volatile than one of fingerlings. Each of these fish weighs about 1.5 pounds (0.68 kilogram) and fights vigorously when caught....[More]
In these tubs, flooded with water fertilized by fish waste, Cabbage Hill grows high-value food crops such as basil, lettuce and other leafy greens. The roots of the vegetables act as filters, drawing nitrates from the water so that it can be returned to the fish tanks, completing a closed loop....[More]
Ferry hoists a polystyrene "raft" of lettuce greens that floats in one of the tubs. The plants are grown hydroponically (without soil) so the roots dangle below the raft and draw nutrients directly from the nitrate-rich water....[More]
The heart of the aquaponic system is a bacterial bioreactor that converts fish-generated ammonia to plant-friendly nitrate in a two-step process. The plastic "wagon wheels" inside the bioreactor [ inset ] house colonies of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter, the two types of bacteria that process the ammonia....[More]
Ferry scoops up a mound of compost containing beneficial earthworms. The relatively small amount of waste generated by the aquaponic greenhouse, be it filtered solids from the tanks, dead fish or wilted plants, is composted and applied to terrestrial crops elsewhere on the farm....[More]
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14 Comments
Add CommentHow does the nutrient content of the vegetables compare to that of plants grown outdoors on organic soil? Toxicity of any kind?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnfortunatly your right. For example, we have designed several electric cars that don't use gas at all and we like the hybrid more because that is less about our lives that we have to change. I learned all about the things people have discovered that would make our life so much easier on the enviroment. There are several reasons why we don't change, including: ignorance, convience, imediate cost, lack of intrest, and the simple fact that we are have a consumer market economy. None of those people care more about the enviroment then they do about making money, and those that do care usualy go out of buisness rather quickly because their prices are more expensive
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBefore your write off this sort of project as "too expensive", consider that what you have seen here is merely 1 approach; there are more. I have been spending my "butter and egg money" for the same length of time as this farm, and I am just months away from a producing full scale closed loop system. I know what I have performs at a an equal or higher level of total efficiency, and is scaleable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen one learns what this field of science can deliver, the whole concept of cost and payback is turned around. There will be many competing system approaches in the coming years, but all will be leveraging some aspect of this technology.
My approach was to marry the scientific understandings of biology and horticulture with the shared wisdom of 4th generation East Texas farmers; it's taken me a career of experiences to do this, and 7 years of working in the back yard to get to where we are now.
Bottom line folks, this stuff works, and you will be benefitting within a couple of years.
The costs and benefits of this new kind of system (although hardly new-- I was working for a aquaponics farm-- Bioshelter, in Sunderland, Mass-- 15 years ago) must be considered in relation to transportation costs and energy expenditures. According to the NYTimes, transportation fuels are not taxed by international agreement! That seriously skews the real costs of transportation-- basically subsidizing the costs of transporting foods across the world-- foods that are grown in wasteful conditions. If the playing field for energy consumption were leveled- perhaps the costs of aquaponically produced foods would appear much more reasonable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see great promise to this ecotechnology but it seems that community is a necessary requirement for these technologies to work. I mean dedicated people motivated by something more meaningful than Wall Street. Coincidentally, I visited the New Alchemy Institute (MA) in the 80�s where this veggies-fish and biological wastewater processes where at work just fine then. Why it didn�t take over the world since? I guess there is more profit in war.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis system seems really efficient in breaking down and utilizing the nitrogen waste, but what about all the other macro and micro nutrients required by developing plants? Does this sort of system still need to import fertilizers to supplement these, or is it claiming the plants are sustained completely by the fish by product?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd this was funded by Mr. Carter's efforts during the end of the Carter Administration:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe most interesting renewable thing in the area was south of that location -- Kaplan Slaughter. They had a perfect, except for size, operation where some 4000 vealers that were fed under a roofed area and their waste was washed into two, sequenced million gallon anaerobic fermentation tanks - financed with a million dollar grant obtained in the Carter renewables era. The neat part was a series of ponds to take care of the waste water overflow inter-fed by inverse gravity -- ending in a pond in which tilapia were raised -- as cat food -- and the bones returned to Kaplan's operation to be added to the feed. The biogas ran a power system that provided much of the electricity for the slaughter house. Just remnants of the operation remain -- too bad -- the size, it seemed to me -- was too small. But a feed lot -- without odors -- marvelous.
my pleasure
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismy pleasure
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPut the tanks under the plants and set them in the desert in greenhouses. Use solar energy and wind energy to power the place, provide shade and use reverse osmosis and entropy recovery to keep water production higher than loss. Large enough tanks will stabilize the temperature. Pull nutrients from the salt water with algae. Work from the coasts inwards.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPut the tanks under the plants and set them in the desert in greenhouses. Use solar energy and wind energy to power the place, provide shade and use reverse osmosis and entropy recovery to keep water production higher than loss. Large enough tanks will stabilize the temperature. Pull nutrients from the salt water with algae. Work from the coasts inwards.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would love to hear more about the system you have been "playing" for the last 7 years of your life! Anyway to learn more? Anemail address, a web site?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks
Roger Pilon, http://ponics.org
DIfferent strokes, different folks! Like cars, you can buy a Rolls Royce or a Smart Car. Some aquaponcis sytems are top of the line, computers, pumps, and so on.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the contary, some are very simple and low budget! Just type on Yahoo search: barrel ponics yahoo group. You will see! An aquaponic KISS system!
Roger Pilon
ponics.org
There is a consensus here, with mounting transport costs and a predicted human population explosion this proven technology needs to be rolled out now. We need elegant designs and cheap manufacture to produce village sized aquaponic units and set them up around the globe. A volunteer troubleshooter team needs to be able to travel globally quickly to rescue failing aquaponic farms, educate, upgrade and proselytize! aquaponics.me.uk
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