Urban Fish Farming Going Strong-ish

Completely contained on-shore fish farming set ups tend to be better for the surrounding environment than the open net pen oceanic farming style that predominates the industry (especially for salmon, which end up polluting the crap, literally, out of the surrounding ecosystem).

Tilapia, unlike salmon, do well in closed tank systems and some folks have been tinkering with growing tilapia and veggies and other greens in an inter-connected system for a while now.  The latest try at growing fish and greens together is shaping up in Chicago, as this AP video (and story) detail...



This isn't a new idea or plan by any means though.  Brooklyn College professor Dr. Martin P. Schreibman has been chasing this dream since at least 2004, when he got a nice write up in the NYT (SEED followed up in 2006 and NPR checked in with Schreibman in 2011).  Enough other folks have jumped on board, in varying size and scale set ups, that there is now a Recirculating Farms Coalition dedicated to helping forward the movement, it sounds like you can probably start your own mini-farm in the garage if you want to.

Growing fish and veggies together is cool for it's efficiencies and hopefully for its tastiness, but projects like these all exist in the growing shadow of food security and supply issues.  As our global population continues to surge forward we'll have to figure out how to feed everyone and these types of urban farming projects may well end up playing a crucial role to that end.

(via SS)

(and we have a new version of the video sans auto-play, sorry about that)