I'm new to this forum and have enjoyed reading your posts for some years. I'd like to introduce myself and say a comment or two about my experience with aquaponics and bioponics. My name is David from Altanta. A couple years ago I developed a small aquaponic system called the Farm in a Box. This was fun, and a huge surprise when it got picked up by the New York Times and Good Morning America. The idea was to create something for kids as an education model. Today I set one up in a charter school 2nd grade science class. It's a thrill to see children's faces light up when you talk about fish and fish pee and veges and algae and worms, etc. They had a class full of educational "toys" to keep their attention; it helps when talking science at that age for sure. They're impressionable and eager to embrace the mysteries of the world to fill their wildest imaginations. For that reason, the Farm in a Box was a gift. It doesn't grow much food but it does provide entertainment and opens the mind, and for many of us that's where it all begins.

Despite being a big fan of aquaponics I was compelled to learn ways to overcome some of those nagging limitations; namely lack of phosphorus and minerals for growing tomatoes. This year I started a new company with a top shelf engineer and set out to conquer. I spoke to Nick Savidov and James Rakocy about this and started on a path of bioponics a year ago, without knowing it had a name. Now we're full on and I tell you it just keeps getting better. It started with putting worms into rock beds and adding worm teas, but then I learned that the Chinese were fertilizing their fish ponds with alfalfa. Wow, how bout that?

Since then I wake up every day to the amazing possibilities of nutrient cycling. Who would have guessed the obvious? Mayans, Aztecs and Chinese maybe but few in the post WWII industrial era have been able to separate logic from custom. Petro fertilizers and mined minerals are the big lie we've been fed for so long. So is store bought fish food. With a bioponic approach it is possible to create complete fertililizer leachates from organic matter by submerging waste into water and allowing it to decompose. From this we can directly fertilize plant beds, grow duckweed and raise algae plus zooplankton and other organisms that feed fish organically. And this is a sustainable practice that will hold up even when the days of manufacture and shipping fertilizers and fish food are behind us. Feeding fish meal to fish is not any more sustainable than using fertilizers. Feeding even soy based fish food is wrong too and for a number of reasons, not least of which are GMO's and farming and processing inefficiencies.

Duckweed is an ideal fish food that is far superior to soy. What's more is that it can be grown off of household or farm waste, pelletized and stored for years to feed fish and livestock. Maybe salmon won't be happy but why raise fish that are not practical for farming anyway?

Has anyone seen the Finnish study that shows how urine from one person for one year is adequate to produce 2500 tomato plants and 2.4tons of tomatoes? Works the same with grass, straw, chicken poop and table scraps. Just need systems designed to make this possible. That's what we're working on now and I trust with a bit of crowd wisdom, we'll all be there before you can say "peak oil."
bioponica.org
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