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Tuesday

Feb022010

Fish Food: Chicago's Appetite for Aquaponics

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 9:01AM

The February issue of Mindful Metropolis, a Chicago magazine about green living, is on newsstands, and it features an article I wrote about several organic aquaponics farms that are planned for the city.

Here's a excerpt:

In aquaponics, the plants are fertilized with nutrients and bacteria from fish water, and the plant roots filter the water so that it can be circulated back into the fish tanks, creating a symbiotic loop between fish and plants. Growing Power actually has several urban farms in Chicago that are managed by Allen’s daughter Erika, but none of them incorporate aquaponics technology. In fact, no commercial aquaponics operations exist in Chicago, because Chicago law doesn’t currently allow it, but several key players would like to see that change.

“There’s nothing on the books in terms of the zoning as far as fish are concerned, but because they’re living beings they’re considered livestock,” says 46th Ward Alderman Helen Shiller. “Well, obviously we have to separate that.”

Shiller hopes to convert the former Salvation Army building at the corner of Broadway and Sunnyside Avenue in Uptown into a multi-use building that would house aquaponics fish tanks and grow beds, an educational center, a community kitchen, and an on-site market. But she needs to address zoning issues in order for that to become a reality.

Allen caught a break with the Growing Power property, because it was already zoned for agricultural use when he bought it. “He’s the last farmer in Milwaukee,” Shiller says. “You could probably not do what he’s doing anywhere else in a city without having the same problems that we’re having.” Shiller recently raised the aquaponics issue with the Chicago Departments of Zoning and Community Development, and she hopes to see the livestock designation change within the next year. “More and more of our colleagues are saying, ‘We really want to do that, so as soon as you figure it out we’re going to do it,’” she says.

Read the whole story at Mindful Metropolis, where you can read a digital version of the entire magazine.

-Mark

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Thursday

Dec102009

Farming With Fish at Growing Power

Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 7:30AM

On Tuesday I wrote about the composting operation at Growing Power; today I'd like to focus on the aquaponics technology - the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics - used at the farm. We've covered aquaponics on this site before, when Dorothee and I went down to Flanagan, IL and made a video about an aquaponic farm called AquaRanch. At Growing Power they do some things similarly to what we saw at AquaRanch, but most of they're setup is very different.

At AquaRanch, Myles Harston keeps the fish in large, circular tanks that are located in a separate room from the vegetable grow beds, and he runs the waste water from the fish tanks to the grow beds. At Growing Power, space is utilized more efficiently. The fish at Growing Power are kept in long, 4-foot deep rectangular tanks that have been dug into the ground. One benefit of this design is that the ground helps to insulate the fish tanks, and it leaves more vertical space to build grow beds (and the Growing Power folks use every square inch of that extra space).

When I visited, we actually saw some workers building a new aquaponics bed (above, at left). My tour guide told us that the materials needed to construct one of the beds only costs about $4,000, with the fish tank liner accounting for most of the cost.

Above the fish tanks, the Growing Power folks have rigged a two-tiered shelf system that serves as grow beds. The water from the fish tanks, which is loaded with fish waste that's rich in nutrients and microbes, is pumped up to the elevated grow beds. The grow beds are set at a slight angle, so the water flows slowly from one end to the other. One of the most common plants grown in these type of bed is watercress (pictured at top), because it likes a lot of water and it does a good job of filtering and cleaning the fish water.

At Growing Power they use both tilapia and yellow perch in the aquaponics systems. Yellow perch are native to the Great Lakes, so they can handle cold water, but tilapia are tropical fish, so their tanks must be heated. Unlike AquaRanch, where the fish are harvested and filleted on-site, Growing Power only sells whole fish at present, but at $6 per pound it's a bargain compared to AquaRanch's $15 per pound tilapia fillets.

-Mark

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