From: Franklin Wayne Poley (culturex@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Tue Sep 19 2000 - 17:17:51 MDT
On Tue, 19 Sep 2000, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> Franklin Wayne Poley wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 18 Sep 2000, Andreas Svensson wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Franklin Poley
> > >
> > > I do not know if this is of interest to you, but in Sweden there is an
> > > experimental farm for rainbow trout. The fish feces are used to fertilize
> > > the soil in big greenhouses growning tomatoes and cucumber. The greenhouses
> > > also clean the water in the fish tanks (closed system).
> > >
> > > I am not sure if anything is written about this in English. Per-Erik (Pekka)
> > > Nygard is responsible for the experiment which is located in Harnosand,
> > > Sweden.
>
> This sort of system dates back to the maya, had maize paddys surrounded by
> canals inhabited by fish and a sort of watercress. Hand dredging the canals
> brought up loam for the paddys, and harvesting the watercress/lillypad growths
> provided green vegetable matter and fiber, with protein from the fish .
>
> 'Sustainable agriculture' is nothing really new, its merely a marketing ploy to
> con people into paying more for their food.
True but I think the integration of some very old natural
aquaculture/agriculture methods with high technology has promise. I had an
acreage and a part-time farm for 10 years. I met some full time greenhouse
growers who were among the first businesses here to make optimal use of
computers. At the same time they used specially bred predator mites to
kill spider mites (very 'organic' and low-tech). Thus in planning the
False Creek Model Sustainable Village in Vancouver (5,000 people/shoreline
site) I can visualize such a project with integrated greenhouses and
closed containment fish farming and little or no pollution from the
industry while it is still very profitable. And I wonder how far one could
go with automating such a complex.
FWP
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