Don’t want GMO’s? How about GIYO?
With the growing demand for organic food production, more and more people are looking at sustainable models that will produce a high yield without necessarily having to farm a large acreage. The perfect solution is aquaponics, which is a great sustainable method to “grow it yourself organically!”
Why not grow your own organic food?
Even If It’s Friday, I’m Still Not Eating Fish
When I was initially approached by social media environmentalist and aquapon, Tom Cooley, I took a quick glance at aquaponics and passed. I simply did not think it was for me. I do not eat fish and wanted no part of a system that appeared to give new meaning to farm raised fish, organic or not. However, as I delved deeper into this method of agriculture, I became intrigued. Tom explained to me that you do not have to eat the fish, so I decided to dig a little deeper and discovered a fascinating new world of organic sustainable farming.
With aquaponics, you do NOT have to eat the fish!
What Is Aquaponics?
Aquaponics is the cultivation of fish and plants together in a constructed, re-circulating ecosystem utilizing natural bacterial cycles to convert fish wastes to plant nutrients. I learned more about this method of growing food organically from Sylvia Bernstein, who was featured on The Organic View Radio Show to discuss her book, Aquaponic Gardening: A Step by Step Guide to Growing Fish and Vegetables Together. Sylvia gave a very informative interview about how to grow your own food with aquaponics and answered a lot of questions for the newbie “aquapon”. To my delight, I learned that Sylvia was also a featured lecturer at last year’s Mother Earth News festival. Talk about a small world!
Tom Cooley’s Approach To Aquaponics
Tom Cooley has had an interest in sustainable methods of growing food for many years. When he discovered Growing Power’s groundbreaking innovations in urban farming using aquaponics, he immediately recognized aquaponics’ potential to feed the world. He wrote these documents in an effort to inform more people about aquaponics. In conjunction with the UN’s World Water Day, March 22, 2012, Tom Cooley published two aquaponics documents. The documents attempt to expand the ability of aquaponics systems to assist people in developing countries to feed themselves sustainably. Aside from necessary initial start up imports such as seeds, fish, spirulina culture, etc. the goal is to create systems which can be constructed and repaired using locally available materials.
Aquapon, Tom Cooley
The primary intent of the published document is to help design sustainable high yield food growing systems for tropical and subtropical areas of the world where water is relatively scarce and electricity is not available. Urban aquaponic systems and third world systems where water is relatively abundant have been conceptualized previously. This model endeavors to assist people in areas of water scarcity. The documents are available for the public under a Creative Commons License and can be found by clicking this link for his site 99percentmonkeys.com
Intro to Aquaponics Google Docs link
Third World Aquaponics Google Doc link
Sustain Chat
For more information about aquaponics and sustainability, please join me, @organicguru for the sustainable chat conversation on Monday’s at 5pm, Eastern with Tom Cooley @99_100thMonkeys and Susan Davis Cushing @UberECOcool on twitter. You can also use the hashtag #sustainchat to keep up with the conversation!
Wow, thank you June!
What a fantastic article. Finally we see aquaponics tied all the ways to GMOs. The full picture of how to proceed with clean food sustainability is coming to light. Thank you, June Stoyer for weaving it all together! And if you’re just reading the comments, please go back and read the article. w00t!
great information! Thank you!
Interesting, I’ve never heard of aquaponics before!
nice….info. 2day i heard abt aquaponics…great info.
Great slides and good video.
By way of introduction, I am Mark Schaefer, and I represent Nutritional Products International. We serve both international and domestic manufacturers who are seeking to gain more distribution within the United States. Your brand recently caught my attention, so I am contacting you today to discuss the possibility of expanding your national distribution reach.We provide expertise in all areas of distribution, and our offerings include the following: Turnkey/One-stop solution, Active accounts with major U.S. distributors and retailers, Our executive team held executive positions with Walmart and Amazon, Our proven sales force has public relations, branding, and marketing all under one roof, We focus on both new and existing product lines, Warehousing and logistics. Our company has a proven history of initiating accounts and placing orders with major distribution outlets. Our history allows us to have intimate and unique relationships with key buyers across the United States, thus giving your brand a fast track to market in a professional manner. Please contact me directly so that we can discuss your brand further. Kind Regards, Mark Schaefer, marks@nutricompany.com, VP of Business Development, Nutritional Products International, 101 Plaza Real S, Ste #224, Boca Raton, FL 33432, Office: 561-544-0719