Aquaculture and the future of Farming
Caroline Lackey
Aquaponics allows for the growth of plants and fish in one, much, smaller area. Aquaponics is one of the many small space agricultures that can be used in cities and to maximize yields as sustainably as possible. It uses a tank of fish with soilless plant growth. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that introduces no chemical fertilizers or pesticides into the water. This decreases nutrient runoff into rivers, lakes, and oceans. The crops and fish harvested are in turn organic leading to a higher profit turn out for the farmer. Indoor aquaponics is also able to be climate controlled by the farmer allowing most crops to grown despite the season. Aquaponic systems are also much less likely to succumb to natural disasters such as floods or droughts. It can be done at a home or commercial level and can decrease the effects of farming on the environment as well as increase the amount of food in areas that do not have access to fresh produce.
The use of aquaponics leads to an increase in jobs, an increase in sustainable practices, a decrease in unused space, and a decrease in food deserts. Persisting past the obstacles in creating urban agriculture could lead to a solution to a whole host of problems. To succeed in combating food deserts, large amounts of money must be put into the solutions. The best way for this to happen is to use a combination of private and public money. Federal and local governments spend millions of dollars to subsidize stores with no real result (Allcott et al, 2018). Channeling that money into solutions like indoor aquaponics would be more productive.
However, this has already been put into place and has been a success in Chicago. In 2010, an abandoned meat packing building and Plant Chicago has used it to create an aquaponics center. The fish and plants grown are sold in local farmer’s markets and to restaurants. The plant also creates energy from leftover biowaste and will eventually become a net-zero energy user with the ability to sell electricity back to the grid (Tomlinson, 2015).
Aquaponics is also in use at Walt Disney World. Much of the produce grown at EPCOT is grown with high-yield, low-impact ways. Plants on grown vertically, in fact the tomato ‘tree’ grew 32,000 tomatoes in 16 months, setting the record for most productive tomato plant. They also use a combination of hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics in order to to save space, water, and fertilizer. Disney grows and serves between 20 and 30 tons of their own produce and fish every year in their own restaurants (Lynch et al., 2018).
Allcott, H., Diamond, R., Dubé, J., Handbury, J., Rahkovsky, I., & Schnell, M. (2018). Food deserts and the causes of nutritional inequality. Working Papers (Faculty) — Stanford Graduate School of Business, , 1-78. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=134420535&site=ehost-live
Lynch, C., Bertone, R., Yancey, J., & Stiers, J. (2018, June 1). How Walt Disney World’s Farm Grows Its Magical Produce. Retrieved from https://www.farmflavor.com/florida/walt-disney-world-farm-grows-magical-produce-earth/.
Tomlinson, L. (2015). Indoor aquaponics in abandoned buildings: A potential solution to food deserts. Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 16(1), 16-40. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lft&AN=113893030&site=ehost-live