"Sweet Water Aquaponic System time shares?"

[James J. Godsil]

Sweet Water has seven 10,000 gallon fish tanks and plant platforms above ready to offer thoughtful people training in their tending and short term or long term leasing: families, schools, spiritual communities, restaurants, scientist, artists, associations, businesses, etc. Ready to brainstorming this concept.

[Tom Barnhardt]

We are setting up a system here in Ohio to do what your speaking about. First it is to provide the fresh produce and fish to the local soup kitchen and food pantries. We will then be training children and adults how to set up a table top system in their house. If plans work out and we are producing more then we need we will sell the excess to local rest. and stores. The old story of give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to grow fish and produce and he eats forever. Keep up the good work James!!

[Ralph R. Zerbonia]

Interesting idea. Perhaps I saw this earlier, because I was having a similar thought recently, I began thinking that area foodbanks might have an interest in 'condo'ing as they recently had state grants (in Ohio) cut that had provided them with fresh vegetables for their clients. Additionally, I wondered if specialty food outlets (stores and restaurants) might not have an interest in having certain agricultural/fish/seafood products grown exclusively for their commercial use. I think the idea of 'over-building capacity and then subletting that overcapacity makes a lot of sense as it appears the larger the overall system, the lower the incremental costs.

[James J. Godsil]

And leaders and heavy lifters of Spiritual Centers, as well!  Why not imagine our churches, temples, etc. exploring the sacred in nature?  Connect aquaponic "edens" with community kitchen's teaching health tasty culinary arts and miracles of loaves and fishes can be created by regular people with their children and elders playing key roles for beleaguered parents.

[James J. Godsil]

This discussion board is where the concept is being elaborated upon at the moment.  It is my hopes that all kinds of teachers will be visiting Sweet Water and other aquaponics sites over the next 5 to 10 years and that each city will have some showrooms where people can discover the different sizes, kinds, methodologies, teams, both through visits to the showrooms, but also through miracle connecting media the internet is bringing to our worlds.  We will ideally be selling products and offering educational experiences.  Some of

the education will be in curricula teachers co-create with "aquaponicists"(new word I learned today).  Others will be more spontaneous, funky, and artistic.  Synchronicities and story swapping should help us refine these broad concepts.  My driving ambition is to accelerate the movement toward an aquaponic system in 10 percent of our nation's and world's schools.  Seems like networked showrooms in each bio-region of North America is one ambition to entertain.  What say?  Why not?

[Dan Brown]

When you refer to aquaponics miniatures, up to what scale are you referring? Are you intending to sell products in addition to having an educational area? Does you image include aquaponic components? Am I understanding all that correctly? If so...I might move, or franchise a location.

[James J. Godsil]

What is exciting about the time share concept is the chance for different approaches to be explored.  With collaborative internet platforms soon to show up in our world, perhaps supported by Milwaukee's winning an

IBM Smart City award for $500,000 organized around sweet soil and sweet water projects, we can be sharing water chemistry, plant growth, fish health and develoment, in real time, into classrooms and creative workshops, across the planet!  I think I have won permission to invite people to begin marketing their aquaponics miniatures in a Sweet Water Showroom.  I'm going to post that in a new blog.  I am deeply grateful for the collective wisdom of this community of practice that reminds me of the French nation when Jean of Arc awakened them from their defeatism back around the 100 year war.  The French speak French because they had Joan of Arc.  My Irish ancestors were forced to speak English, lacking a Joan of Arc.  Methinks the planet earth needs a "collective Joan of Arc."  Maybe its the aquaponics and urban agriculture community!

[TCLynx]

Some how I don't think the systems/tanks are going to new homes but rather inviting people to use/lease them where they are.

 

Hum, do you have any groups already wanting to come in and use them?

 

I think the indoor facilities definitely need to concentrate on the plants that will thrive in the lower light levels inside.  I would move the shooting right to the system.  I've found that putting capillary matting over the foam boards so that the edges hang down into the water, I can place the shooting trays right on the matting and it stays perfectly bottom watered.  The indoor space could be devoted almost completely to shooting and seed starting to pay the bills while the water could be circulated out to the greenhouse facilities to use up nutrients during the warm season.

[James J. Godsil]

Small is beautiful has been my mantra since reading Schumacher back around 1973.  This time-share concept is something to be brainstormed, given the difference in emphasis from the more mainstream business model of the original key Sweet Water people.  I have also been inspired by decentralized and self-managed work teams, which is the theoretical background to the notion "profit centers."  And by "profit" I'm surely not just talking about "green capital."  Quite often cultural capital, social capital, ecological capital, and spiritual capital are more powerful and worthy goals.  Of course the bills must be paid.  Trust in God but tie your camel tightly!

[Sylvia Bernstein]

James, I'll put something about this on the home page, and I suggest you also place it in the Buy / Sell section in the tabs above.  Once you are ready to move from brainstorming to finding homes for these just let me know and I'll send out an email to the entire membership.  Cool stuff!