What Is Aquaponics? (VIDEO)

Wednesday, Organic Nation TV released a new video detailing an aquaponics operation in Flanagan, Illinois. Dorothee Royal-Hedinger writes,

Myles Harston of AquaRanch Industries has been working with aquaponics 1992. At his innovative facility, he grows tilapia and a wide variety of certified organic vegetables including lettuce, kale, chard, herbs, tomatoes, and hot peppers. Myles is hoping to become certified for organic fish production as soon as that standard, currently under development, is finalized by the USDA.

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Comments

[Cybersquirt]

06:08 PM on 09/04/2009

Very Cool.

They change the sex of tilapia? :o

[coveark]

11:12 PM on 08/31/2009

Going to Epcot is very interesting. Their hydroponic and hanging gardens are worth seeing and investigating if you have the opportunity. Also , Umbra in Grist has some very neat small hanging gardens for city dwellers.

[renisans]

07:35 PM on 08/27/2009

Very interesting video. If this is a closed-loop system, then wouldn't that be a good thing for certain adventurous Californians interested in agriculture? There's already hydroponically-grown herbs and veggies sold at the largest farmers markets in L.A.. Fish poop serves as the nutrient medium, which can be expensive with hydroponics so I would imagine that this farmer's water bills are miniscule compared to farmers working on land

[anthonytaurus]

04:07 AM on 08/30/2009

Believe me, marijuana growers know about this already. It's just too much of a hassle to develop it Most growers are much smaller than this guy's operation.

[sheilaofmiami]

04:38 PM on 08/27/2009

I wonder about the amount of water needed to do this, water is also a resource in shorter and shorter supply.

[Marlyn]

05:25 PM on 08/27/2009

No life without water.

[CaptainFailmore]

10:34 AM on 08/28/2009

Some fish farms just use saltwater straight from the ocean. Hydroponic systems for vegetable growing also recycle a good portion of their water by necessity, retaining it much more efficiently than an open field. (For that same reason, they also use much less in the way of fertilizer. Instead of throwing it on the ground and letting it wash away in the form of runoff, the solution of water and plant nutrients is continually reused.)

Per volume of food that this system will produce, much less water is being expended. Far less wasteful, far less polluting. If you're concerned about water consumption, this is actually a solution. Even without hydroponics, greenhouse growing is still more water-efficient just because you have a lot more control over how much water you put down and, through climate control and control over the growing media and containers, how much water actually leaves. It's pretty cool stuff.

[Randy White]

03:12 PM on 08/27/2009

Great video! There is an open revolution happening to fight back against corporate control systems on food. Here is another example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0myV38dZq0

[JScott]

11:48 AM on 08/27/2009

fine if you have all the (clean) water to do all that, in the US west eh not so much.

[Rope-A-Dope]

12:12 PM on 08/27/2009

western oregon, western washington, northern california, parts of idaho, parts of wyoming, montana, and colorado -- plenty of spots in the west to use this technique. the real question is, does it make financial sense per acre to use farmland in this manner? if it doesn't, it'll never get real traction

[Dorothee]

01:02 PM on 08/27/2009

When I spoke with Myles, he mentioned that rain water could be collected on rooftops and the plants could even be grown with lights so it sounds like this could be ideal for urban land-locked environments in need of safe, fresh food. If you have enough clean water to start the process, you wouldn't need to add more since it's a closed-loop system and the plants clean the water for you so you can recycle it.