Aquaponics
KC-based Chef Incorporates Aquaponics into Restaurant Operation
May 21, 2013 | Abbie StutzerNot many restaurateurs would commit to building their own aquaponics system in the basement of their restaurant. But Anton Kotar, owner of Anton’s Taproom in Kansas City, Mo., had experience raising tropical fish and tending plants in his home so he knew he could make the sustainable, aquaponic-restaurant concept work.
Anton’s Taproom opened in October 2012, and started serving food on November 1. And Kotar worked on the space, renovating the historic building and constructing fish tanks, 14 months before opening. Since opening, the restaurant has seen a lot of success, and the restaurant’s aquaponic and vertical farm system are running swimmingly. Read More
Waste Reuse, Health and Nutrient Density Core to Arizona-based Aquaponic Operation
May 20, 2013 | Melonie Magruder
Mark Rhine and Marlo Ibanez, co-owners of Rhibafarms. Photo Credit: Rhibafarms.
Five years ago Mark Rhine and his business partner Marlo Ibanez, co-owners of Rhibafarms, had a broadband company in Phoenix, Arizona. They fielded a $225,000 a month payroll, traveled constantly and ate junk food only as an afterthought. Then they cashed in their company, bought a farm – Rhibafarms – and saw their health turn 180 degrees.
“We both lost a ton of weight, lowered our blood pressure and cholesterol and stopped taking medication,” Rhine said. “All because we started eating the organic food we grow. So all we want to grow now is very nutrient-dense food.” Read More
Chef in Brea, CA Embraces Aquaponics to Supply Restaurants, a Catering Business and Local Markets
May 16, 2013 | Trish Popovitch
Chef Adam Navidi, owner of Future Foods Farms and Green to Go.
Every small grower likes to find ways to reduce costs and cut out the middle man but Adam Navidi of Future Foods Farms and Green to Go has turned organic growing and serving his clientele into a planet friendly fine art. He grows a wide range of organic produce through the aquaponic systems on his farm. The produce is then sold at his restaurant. The restaurant scraps in turn are used to feed the fish on his farm. This sustainable circuit of good is developed from a combination of creative thinking, hard work and a passion for good food.
“As a chef that owns a catering company and a restaurant, I wanted to be able to provide my clients with the best produce possible. For a chef there is no better way for being in tune with your food than to grow it yourself,” explains Navidi. Future Foods Farms, the largest aquaponic farm in Southern California, sits on 25 acres of open country and began in earnest back in 2008. Comprised of ten large greenhouses, Future Foods Farms is home to a varied assortment of fruit and vegetables not to mention hundreds of tilapia fish. Vegetarian fish fed on California organic brown rice no less. Read More
Detroit Urban Farming Enterprise, RecoveryPark, Poised to Revitalize East Side and Create 18,000
May 9, 2013 | Nina Ignaczak
The east side of Detroit, like much of the rest of the city, is in dire need of recovery.
The land is dotted with vacant and abandoned homes. The economy is in tatters. Unemployment, infant mortality, poverty, crime, and drug abuse are major challenges facing the dwindling population.
This is the land capitalism left behind.
A new enterprise combining urban farming, substance abuse rehabilitation, and an alternative economic model is attempting to provide that recovery on the many fronts in which it is needed. Read More
Nevada High Altitude Farm Stretches Bounds of Sustainable Ag Innovation, Educates Others in Effort to Expand Market
April 18, 2013 | Pamela Ellgen
Photo Credit: Hungry Mother Organics.
Thanks to its harsh climate and high altitude, Northern Nevada requires that farmers develop innovate agricultural methods and practice to sustainably grow produce. Seedstock recently spoke with Jacob O’Farrell, Special Projects Coordinator at Hungry Mother Organics about the challenges of farming in the Sierra Nevada foothills and how the state can improve its movement toward sustainable agriculture.
How did Hungry Mother Organics begin?
We started out as a family farm over 20 years ago in Virginia and relocated to Nevada ten years ago. Thereafter we worked with an inmate rehabilitation program and used prison labor to set up hoop houses at the Northern Nevada Correctional Facility. We continued expanding and eventually launched a retail location where we offer organic produce, heirloom seeds, Read More
Food Field Urban Farm in Detroit Heals Land, Sets Sights On Aquaponics and Economic Viability
April 1, 2013 | Nina Ignaczak
Photo Credit: Food Field.
Like many neighborhoods in Detroit, Boston-Edison, once home to Henry Ford, has seen better days. Abandoned, burned out structures are interspersed with vacant lots. Although an intact historic district survives, much of the neighborhood suffers from the post-industrial poverty and neglect that plagues much of rest of the city.
It is here that Noah Link and Alex Bryan, recent University of Michigan graduates, launched Food Field, an organic farm, in 2010. After working on several area farms and gardens, the pair was inspired to join Detroit’s burgeoning urban agriculture movement. Together, they drafted a business plan and applied to purchase land through the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority, a state-operated clearinghouse for tax-reverted public property. The Authority approved the plan, and after soil tests found no contamination (a common issue in post-industrial urban landscapes), they purchased a 4-acre parcel that was the former site of an elementary school. Read More
Small Scale Farm Op Only Miles from Las Vegas Strip Shows Promise of Desert Agriculture
March 4, 2013 | Jan Fletcher
Growing organic food in the desert is no easy task. But Marilyn Yamamoto, who cultivates several acres of land a short drive from the famed Los Vegas Strip, has transformed her acreage into a test garden to help gardeners in the area determine the most efficient plants to grow on their properties so as to provide quality healthy food for their families.
Yamamoto says the small-scale growing operation known as Cowboy Trail Farm, which she operates as nonprofit under the name ‘Organic Edibles LV, inc’, is a labor of love.
Yamamoto, a Master Gardener, says she first began to experiment with desert cultivation techniques a few years ago, when her organization received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She used the funds to acquire two hoop houses. Read More
Nevada Indoor Ag Conference Brings Together Innovators to Confront Challenges to Local Food Production
February 28, 2013 | Robert Puro
News Release – (Las Vegas) – Entrepreneurs, agriculture industry leaders and Nevada state officials plan to come together to propel forward the development of creative and sustainable indoor growing solutions. The Nevada Indoor Agriculture Conference will aim to increase local food production in the dry desert landscape that abounds in Nevada and, in turn, bolster the state’s internal food supply as well as the local economy. Indoor agriculture has the potential to meet future food demands, reduce environmental impacts, and create new economic engines.
To address these challenges, notables in sustainable and indoor agriculture will bring their leading-edge products and ideas to the Nevada Indoor Agriculture Conference on Wednesday, April 24. This one-day event at the Historic 5th Street School in Downtown Las Vegas, will focus on how the state can increase its indoor agriculture production in a sustainable manner and become a recognized hub for innovation in this space. Read More
Tucson, AZ Aquaponics Startup Keeps it Local, Grows Fish and Produce in the Desert
February 25, 2013 | Pamela Ellgen
Sweet persian melon grown by Local Roots Aquaponic Family System.
The idea of eating only locally-grown, seasonal food sounds appealing. Until you move to the desert. With an average annual rainfall of less than 13 inches, Tucson, Arizona is somewhat less than hospitable to traditional, soil-based agriculture. And fish? Forget it.
But, it was not the land that drew Stéphane Herbert-Fort to the Sonoran desert. It was the sky. He came to the University of Arizona to study astronomy and graduated with a PhD in 2011. Midway through his grad studies, however, he unearthed a deeper ambition than life as an academic.
“As a longtime fan of sustainable technologies and organic gardening, I wanted to join the two and make an impact on urban agriculture in Tucson. It was the perfect time for a change. Aquaponics fulfills my passions: to grow as much food as possible, simply and sustainably.” Read More
Rather than ‘Figure Out More Ways to Blow People Up’, Former NASA Engineer Seeks Solution to Feed World
February 21, 2013 | Melonie Magruder
When NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011, a lot of the engineers and systems technology staff ended up heading to defense industry contracting firms. But Douglas Mallette, founder and CEO of Cybernated Farm Systems, says he wanted to help feed the world rather than “figure out more ways to blow people up.”
So he founded Cybernated Farm Systems with the idea of building a fully self-generating and sustainably-operating greenhouse growing system that could feed precisely 634 people for 30 years, leave a small carbon footprint and provide nutritious, organic, fresh food in a world of rising poverty and hunger. Read More
Oregon-based Aquaponic Startup Seeks to Completely Close Loop
February 14, 2013 | Susan BotichHydroponics, the practice of growing crops in nutrient-rich water as opposed to soil, in concert with aquaculture, the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc., creates a sustainable, symbiotic farming system called aquaponic farming. Aquaponic farming is not a new form of farming, but other than many of the readers of this website few people know about it. Three men, Gabriel Michels, Timothy Kirk and Nicholas Fox, who partnered to create Grass Roots Aquaponic Farms LLC, located in Oregon City, Oregon, hope to change that. The idea was planted years ago.
“Actually, I was inspired back in high school,” says Michels. “That was about 10 years ago. Nic and I were in the same class and our school got a grant to have a complete aquaponic setup. It was great! We grew all kinds of vegetables.” Read More
Seedstock to Cohost Nevada’s First Indoor Agriculture Conference to in Las Vegas on April 24
February 1, 2013 | seedstockNevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development Takes Steps to Help Move Forward Governor’s ‘Grown in Nevada’ Program
(Las Vegas) — The Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Seedstock, a social venture dedicated to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable agriculture, have announced they will co-host the first Nevada Indoor Agriculture Conference on April 24 in Las Vegas. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Desert Research Institute are also key participants in the event.
The conference, designed to offer practical advice to those interested in growing food indoors on a commercial scale, will address various aspects of this increasingly popular farming choice as it relates to Nevada’s desert environment. Read More
Fish and Greens Grow Together on Rooftop Farm in Winter Gardens, Fla.
January 30, 2013 | Jan Fletcher
Photo Credit: Green Sky Growers.
Traveling from farm to market has never been a shorter trip than it is for the produce grown by Green Sky Growers, a rooftop aquaponic farm, in Winter Gardens, Fla. The farm’s main client is a restaurateur housed in the same building. Delivering fresh produce is a mere one-minute commute in an elevator.
The unique aquaponic operation arose through the personal vision of Bert Roper, an aquaculture expert from Winter Gardens, Fla., whose ancestors settled the area more than a century ago. Although Roper passed away in late 2012, his legacy lives on. It’s visible in the lush, edible greenery that draws nutrients from a rooftop pond atop a multi-rise, 3,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Read More
