Aquaponic Gardening

A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

The Aquaponic Farmers Cooperative is a group of aquaponic farms whose shared customer base, expense of distribution and online presence will provide more sales opportunities and save money for the members.  Online tools will allow the farmers to use shared data collected at each farmers location to project sales and understand industry trends faster and should provide better business agility for its members.  Many farms creates buying power.  We will setup vendor agreements and all benefit from lower prices.

The goals:

Web presence
Online ordering for customers (we need a website name???  I like FishandVegetables.com?  its not taken :P)
Data collection and reporting
Distribution Infrastructure (warehouse, cold storage, trucks, etc)
Increased opportunities for cross-sales by sharing a customer base.
Reliable delivery of goods due to multiple farms.
Vendor Agreements

The obstacles:

Always, is money and\or time.

We will do this organically with what we have, when we can...

As before, please let me know if you like this and want to be a part of it.  or let me know i am a jackass :) hahaha

Seriously though folks, this vision has merit I think and if enough of you stand behind me it will be possible.  Once my farm is started and seeds are planted (Feb 2011)  I will be the first to join this and will begin investing into its infrastructure.  Who will be number 2?  I say we share and protect each other. 

Who am I?  Just another ex-code monkey from microsoft trying to change the world.  Let's do it :)

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Some background first ... I think we are looking at a possible financial meltdown .. having said that I am trying to set up an aquaponic system that will take care of first the needs of my family ... from their to take care of the needs of my neighbors .... then look at supplying your small local grocery stores... need to stay away from the big corporate strongholds as much as possible as with their mega hydro systems ...
start a aquaponic associated group ... local ... state/provincial/national .. more for strength in numbers but also as an outlet for excess production. Also working together one could commit to one or two products .. ie one does bokchoy another lettuce etc .Local memberships is another possibility.. offers food security for those who desire such a thing ... for non-certified organic.
Are you going to get rich ... probably not .. but if you enjoy what you are doing and can make a decent living ...
I think we may have to define what we mean by Aquaponic farmer.Will the Cooperative include "all" AP farmers even if i only produce say, 50 lettuce plants per month? If the farm is along the distribution route or close enough to it, with 20 of these types of smaller producers it would mean an extra 1000 plants in the AP pool. If transport and other logistical cost are factored in, a percentage cost can be calculated as a price per lettuce. This would mean that it would cost each farmer, regardless of quantity of produce, the same. the Cooperative can also offer AP training to people along routes to increase supply to the terminal end of the route(Outlets) and slowly expand their routes creating an ever growing network. Who knows? this network could possibly reach even myself, here in the Caribbean!...........eventually.
Exactly ... power is in numbers .. on my small acreage I think I can do 5 greenhouses 30 x 100.. already have neighbours etc waiting to see how it works before they jump on board ...
First need to perfect the system though .....

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