Future (perhaps corporate) aquaponics

[Eric Warwick]

I want to know if aquaponics can be made into a profitable business model to replace or change "agrabusiness". I am for the decentralization of food, but will aquaponics be compatible with our modern world. Or would it be better suited towards home use.   

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Roger,
Great reference document for those considering the economics of AP business. While it may take me some time to review it(just skimmed through as I'm pressed these next few days), I see Kobus replied and from the looks of it in great detail.
On another lighter note, i see you make have given me the credit for Kobus's reply but I'd like to take the opportunity to remind you of the differences between Kobus and I. Well. he is more handsome(by far) and also possesses much more in the way of academic achievement than i am.(Hahahahaha!)

[Roger Pilon]

I took notice of the "lighter note". 

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Roger

 

NOTE:  I will wait for your review. Always more in 2 heads than one!

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi Roger,
Great reference document for those considering the economics of AP business. While it may take me some time to review it(just skimmed through as I'm pressed these next few days), I see Kobus replied and from the looks of it in great detail.
On another lighter note, i see you make have given me the credit for Kobus's reply but I'd like to take the opportunity to remind you of the differences between Kobus and I. Well. he is more handsome(by far) and also possesses much more in the way of academic achievement than i am.(Hahahahaha!)

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Roger,

Great effort in your posting of this document. It gives a much more than a superficial table of cost/profit and can be used by anyone wondering if AP is indeed profitable. Looking at the document and Kobus's reply to you, i feel he's covered most concerns, but we should take into account that factors will always be endemic to locality. My costing is very simple and when you add the DIY aspect, locally available materials and other input cost(electricity,water,transport, market prices etc.), and climate(In the tropics), even though the highest input being quality fish pellet, i calculate, in my personal case, about 30% more profit over this estimate.

However,thank you for sharing it as it is a good guide for anyone contemplating an APas pleasure/ business.

[Greg Pettengill]

Hi David,

 

While I generaly agree with what you say, and specificly about "the future of AP is bright and shiny", I'm not sure that your inference that "the worlds population at large is underfed" because there is not enough food to go around is correct.  The sad fact is that there is probably enough food to feed everyone if they could afford to buy it.  I do not deny that there are food shortages, but the underlying reasons for them are far more economic ones.

 

Best Regards

Greg Pettengill

 

David Owens said:

I believe everyone is debating the point, only because no public records of commercially viable AP businesses have been available. It seems that AP is a fledgling industry full of practicing "craft" growers however it could become viable if we can bring experts from other profitable agriculture businesses together. Currently, there are profitable aquaculture, hydroponic, agriculture and marketing businesses out there as well as new technologies like LED and plasma horticulture lighting, green energy technologies and greenhouse geothermal heating. I believe that the future of AP is bright and shiny and should be approached as the challenge it is. We can all agree that oil is a limited resource and the worlds population at large is underfed. This is something that can be corrected by all of us AP enthusiasts by starting our own backyard systems and conducting experiments, sharing information and making leaps in AP science. Eventually, someone will figure out the ratios and numbers and become a role model for people to start successful commercial AP businesses. The future should be very interesting

[David Owens]

Yes I agree Greg. It is sad that there is an abundance of food to go around and yet often people that live where the abundance of food is often still go to bed hungry. I guess I just hope that AP can help to reduce the prices and availability of vegetables and protein to the masses at large. It just seems that we should be able to focus on food production, distribution and environmental stewardship in this day and age and feed our population without harming this planet. It seems that in our oil based world we war over resources and I would hate to see water or food be the next reason for more madness.

[Greg Pettengill]

That's what makes it so ironic and tragic.  It was almost 200 years ago that Malthus recognized and described the problem, but we haven't been able to avoid it so far.

 

As far as agribusiness goes, I tend to view it as pretty much all tied up with Peak Oil.  Aquaponics appears to have some positive aspects that are likely to be of benefit to many people.  But it is doubtful that it will have a significant impact, good, bad or otherwise on the problems of overpopulation and wealth distribution.  The consensus seems to be that we will have to wait a long time before we see wide spread and/or large scale applications.

[TCLynx]

Well I know that there are people on missions to bring aquaponics to third world villages, one of the bases of training happens to be here in Florida (Morningstar Fishermen) and Travis Hughey has done much to try to get low cost aquaponics into the had of people using materials that are hopefully relatively available in most places.

 

In places where electricity isn't reliable and bringing in large amounts of batteries/solar panels/windmills etc isn't likely to work well.  I've suggested that in rural areas where many people actually already do some form of aquaculture, that they keep that up and teach them to use humanure composting and wicking beds to expand their food production capacity in a lower tech fashion while closing the nutrient loop.

 

It really is a distrobution problem, Heck, there are obese people right here in the USA who are not even too poor to buy food, it's just that the food they are buying is so processed that they are malnourished!  They are not under fed but so much of the nutrition has been stripped of the food in processing to extend it's shelf life that many people over eat because their bodies are craving things that they should be getting from food but they are not.  

 

And then in many of the countries where "aid" has been given, like in the form of falling food.  Too many people become dependent on the hand outs and generations of traditional wisdom about how to grow/gather their own food has been lost  and add to it, many people are now suffering from "western diseases" because of now eating a "western diet" so the people who have been given enough food or those who can afford the western diet are often now sick with things like heard disease, hypertension, diabetes, and an array of gastric troubles.

 

Aquaponics which tends to lend it's self to growing lots of leafy greens and veggies instead of refined grain can go a long way to providing healthier food on a much more local scale.