Aquaponic Food Web.

[Chi Ma]

I had some neighbors/friends over for a BBQ the other day and they heard the tinkling of my AP setup. They said hey that's cool you have a pond. I said no, it's my AP garden. So I showed them the concept and they seemed intrigued and asked more questions. Since I'm not a pro of any kind I pointed them to this site.

We all started a discussion about this. We came up with the idea of an AP Food Web. Every family would Have a small AP system like mine. Everyone would grow different crops so that we can all share. One family would have catfish, another tilapia, another crayfish etc etc. so in essence it would be like a co-op.

Have any of you explored this idea?

[TCLynx]

I've thought about it. Actually, beyond just AP but more of a wider garden/food thing since it is often convenient to grow more of something than is useful to just one family but it is usually hard to grow just enough of everything that one family might need so the trading should help this.

However, the coordination and cooperation needed for such things is the part I don't know how to achieve in my neighborhood. There are only a few of us with gardens and we seem to be outcasts.

It is a great idea though and I hope people will share some methods to making it happen. I personally think everyone should grow a little of their own food, if everyone did this, the whole "food shortage" issue would likely vanish.

[Chi Ma]

My same feelings. My dad said that if you want to do something good you need to focus on that one thing. So if we focused on a few food crops instead of growing everything ourselves we'd likely have a better end product.

Since that day we had a BBQ my friends have brought their friends over to check it out. It looks like a community building idea since with these fast paced times we are losing communities.



TCLynx said:

I've thought about it. Actually, beyond just AP but more of a wider garden/food thing since it is often convenient to grow more of something than is useful to just one family but it is usually hard to grow just enough of everything that one family might need so the trading should help this.

However, the coordination and cooperation needed for such things is the part I don't know how to achieve in my neighborhood. There are only a few of us with gardens and we seem to be outcasts.

It is a great idea though and I hope people will share some methods to making it happen. I personally think everyone should grow a little of their own food, if everyone did this, the whole "food shortage" issue would likely vanish.

[Chi Ma]

It's the same here Kobus. Everyone here is in their lil own self absorbed world. I don't even get a hello when I wave. This spring I think I will start the ball rolling and host a neighborhood BBQ and show them the fruits of my labors.



Kobus Jooste said:

Don't know what your communities look like, but in South Africa, we tend to scurry past each other a lot. Your concept would actually need a first phase of "meet thy neighbour" over here. It is a good concept, but I think something that will grow in friend and family circles first and then expand outwards in Milwaukee Renaissance-style community food production. We already do this in a small way in our family. There is a farm producing mutton, I've got AP crops, I get the occasional opportunity to go hunting large game (the edible type). Everything gets "shared" where there is surplus, but it will take a great amount of organisation to step it up a gear. I do think we are heading for a need for that way the way resource shortages are developing.

[Paul Letby]

This is an awesome idea. We too have lost a great deal of the sense of actually being a community. I moved from a small town (500 people) where everyone looked out for each other (and shared produce from the garden regularly) into the city (750,000 people). My neighbors here had a hard time getting used to the fact I wanted to get to know them. It's going to take leaders in our communities to get the ball rolling on ideas like this. Good for you Chi!

Yes TCLynx, the two neighbors on our street with gardens are rather shunned here too. What's up with that? I took great pleasure in messing with the minds of my neighbors as I set up a lasagna garden for the first time. Nobody had any clue why I had so much straw, grassclippings and such piled high in my yard. They weren't asking questions after my garden took over my backyard though. The lady next door wants me to redo her garden now. Ha! I figure the more garden I have, the less mowing I have to do.

[TCLynx]

Totally,
I sometimes describe myself as the crazy lady who goes around steeling all the neighborhood bags of leaves and grass clippings that they so painstakingly raked up and bagged to have hauled away, and I gleefully dump them on my yard =))

Yep, I think the neighborhood BBQ's are a great idea. Might be slow going at first but maybe the idea of growing your own food and sharing with neighbors will catch on again. Aquaponics seems like a great conversation starter to really get that going too.


Paul Letby said:

This is an awesome idea. We too have lost a great deal of the sense of actually being a community. I moved from a small town (500 people) where everyone looked out for each other (and shared produce from the garden regularly) into the city (750,000 people). My neighbors here had a hard time getting used to the fact I wanted to get to know them. It's going to take leaders in our communities to get the ball rolling on ideas like this. Good for you Chi!

Yes TCLynx, the two neighbors on our street with gardens are rather shunned here too. What's up with that? I took great pleasure in messing with the minds of my neighbors as I set up a lasagna garden for the first time. Nobody had any clue why I had so much straw, grassclippings and such piled high in my yard. They weren't asking questions after my garden took over my backyard though. The lady next door wants me to redo her garden now. Ha! I figure the more garden I have, the less mowing I have to do.

[Michelle Silva]

It's a cool idea..there was some talk of someone trying to get that going around here, never got off the ground. For myself, I kind of like having lots of diverse things growing  in my yard though, so probably wouldn't do it.

 

[Eric Warwick]

This is a fascinating idea but, might face road blocks from well intentioned regulation.

[Chi Ma]

As long as it's not sold and it's kept at a local community level I don't see any road blocks. Adapt and overcome my brother.

Eric Warwick said:

This is a fascinating idea but, might face road blocks from well intentioned regulation.

[TCLynx]

Biggest road blocks I see are those neighborhoods with the super strict HOA that tells you what color the mail box can be and forbid gardens even in the back yard behind the privacy fence.

Eric Warwick said:

This is a fascinating idea but, might face road blocks from well intentioned regulation.

[Eric Warwick]

Or more intrusive governmet regulation; making any type of organization regulated to the standerds we impose on corporations. If it is a nonorganized transaction I don't see a problem. However I am not exactly familier with the regulations.

TCLynx said:

Biggest road blocks I see are those neighborhoods with the super strict HOA that tells you what color the mail box can be and forbid gardens even in the back yard behind the privacy fence.

Eric Warwick said:

This is a fascinating idea but, might face road blocks from well intentioned regulation.

[Michelle Silva]

In our area (Sarasota, FL)  it's legal to grow for market from your backyard (at least it is for now) but not legal to have a market stand at your house if living in a residential neighborhood.. The local county extension office has been teaching backyard market gardening classes in order to help promote more locally grown produce. Unfortunately, the class I signed up to attend was canceled due to low attendance, lol!

Chi Ma said:

As long as it's not sold and it's kept at a local community level I don't see any road blocks. Adapt and overcome my brother.

Eric Warwick said:

This is a fascinating idea but, might face road blocks from well intentioned regulation.

[Chi Ma]

Anyone doing this yet?