Saturday, March 1, 2008

EcoCity Farm, a new direction for agriculture


(Photo courtesy of Rivendell Organics)
Here's an interesting hybrid setup of aquaponics and vermiculture to grow vegetables.

The idea is to use live fish and crustaceans, raised in large tanks, to produce fertilizer for the vegetables.

According to Andrew Bodlovich and Hogan Gleeson, creators of the ecoCity Farm, a farm the size of a city block can feed up to 300 people with no waste, little water and minimal effort.

The wastewater generated from the population is filtered through a patented “bio-converter” which mineralizes any compound that could be dangerous to plant or fish health (e.g. bacteria, feces). The bio-converter works with vermiculture – colonies of waste-eating worms that turn undesirable compounds into plant-ready nutrients. Water, filtered through the worm treatment nourishes the vegetables. The veggies use up the minerals and nutrients from the fish water, effectively filtering it to its original, clean state. This newly plant-filtered water is sent back to the fish tanks.

See Eat. Drink. Better. blog for more details.

2 comments:

Kate said...

Here this is called "Aquaponics" and people are beginning to use it even in a home situation. Here is a link to read more. http://www.simplyaussie.com/index.php

Greg W said...

Thanks for the link.

Simply Aussie got some good produce out of their system. I like the way they are not afraid to show us the hardships they encountered so we can have a better idea of what to expect if we decide to do this. And they are not giving up! Good for them!

I guess the difference between the two systems is that ecoCity included vermiculture into the scheme which I think is a good idea.

G'day and thanks for visiting.