- Welcome, everyone,
I'm Chris Cirmo,
the Dean of the College of
Letters and Science at UWSP.
I want to welcome you to a
community lecture series tonight
highlighting our faculty
scholarship and its relation
to our community.
Tonight's lecture
is being recorded by
Wisconsin Public Television,
for broadcast as part of its
University Place series.
First of all, I'd like to
thank a couple of folks here
at the Portage County Library:
Bob Stack, the director,
and Scott Tappa, who's my
assistant for Marketing,
Public Relations and Events.
Tonight's lecture is entitled
Aquaponics: Sustainable
Food Production.
And our presenter
is Chris Hartleb,
who is professor of biology
at UWSP, and director of
the Northern Aquaculture
Demonstration Facility
in Bayfield, Wisconsin.
He's also Research
Director of the new
Aquaponics Innovation Center
in Montello, Wisconsin.
The Aquaponics Innovation
Center is a really neat story.
Chris assisted us in getting
about a $700,000 grant
from the Wisconsin Economic
Incentive Grant Program
last year, and worked
with a private firm
by the name of Nelson & Pade.
And Rebecca Nelson and
John Pade were pivotal
private partners in
this partnership,
and I think Chris is
going to talk a little bit
about that tonight.
I've worked with
Chris for six years.
I've been here
six years as dean,
and I'm going on my
seventh year now.
And I can say unequivocally
that Chris is one of the more
energetic, creative
and imaginative
people I've ever met.
We've gotten to know each
other on five-hour drives
up to Bayfield, Wisconsin
and an hour and a half drives
down to Montello and
always have something great
to talk about.
Chris has done wonders
with our Northern Aquaculture
Demonstration facility
in Bayfield, and the
work that he's done
as a faculty member
and as an entrepreneur
is nothing short of magnificent.
I just want to commend Chris
for his incredible drive
and entrepreneurship.
Chris received a Bachelor's
Degree in Biology
from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, New York.
His M.S. in Limnology from the
University of New Hampshire
and his PhD in
Fisheries Ecology from--
excuse me here--
his PhD in Fisheries Ecology
from the University of Maine.
He's been a professor of
Biology at UWSP for 19 years,
where he's had experience
working with larval fish,
cool and cold water aquaculture,
and most recently, aquaponics,
which he's going to
talk about tonight.
He teaches courses in
aquaculture, aquaponics,
fisheries ecology
and field ecology.
It's my pleasure to
welcome Dr. Chris Hartleb
as tonight's special guest,
speaking about Aquaponics:
Sustainable Food Production .
Chris?
(audience applause)
- Well, thank you, and thank
you for joining me tonight.
As Chris just mentioned, I
want to speak about the topic
of aquaponics, which we'll
discuss in some more detail,
some of the specifics about it.
But the other part is, is
talk about it as a sustainable
food production system.
And before we can get into
that, I think what we have
to look at really is
how does it compare
with our more traditional
types of agriculture,
how much they're producing
and what their impact is
and then try to see where
aquaponics can fit into
food production.
So if you think about
traditional agriculture,
you know, most of the time,
you're thinking about corn
and soybeans or
potatoes in a field.
You're thinking about
cows, pigs or chickens.
Something to keep in mind is,
is are we producing enough?
And if not, what are
we willing to sacrifice
to raise production of these
different plants and animals?
I kind of got this
graph together here
from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture,
and what you can see is,
is that except for Asia,
traditional agriculture has
really kind of maxed out
in most other continents
and most other locations.
So in essence, we're either
producing most of the food
that we can, or we've
reached a limit on how much
we're willing to produce.
As you can see in
this graph, basically,
the world population as we
know continues to increase.
Most people look at
the top line here
of world agriculture production
and say to themselves,
"Well, it looks like we're
actually keeping ahead
"of the pace of human
population growth."
But the fact is, that most of
that increase in production
is actually happening
over in Asia,
where all the other continents
have basically gone flat.
So how long can Asia
continue to produce
more and more
agricultural products
to feed the growing population?
I think most experts would say
that we're coming very
close to the limit
that we can actually produce.
So how are we going to
feed the world?
And as we feed the world,
what are we willing
to sacrifice?
Are we willing to pollute
the environment even more?
You know, adding fertilizers?
Adding different types of
biocides to these crops
just so we can
produce more and more?
Are we willing to damage
habitats and wildlife?
Because we've got to
clear more and more land
in order to put these
crops and plant them.
And of course, as you
look at these animals,
what they're doing with
a lot of animals is,
is that they're stocking
them at higher densities,
crowding them together.
This often results
in the spread,
a rapid spread of diseases,
so they're adding more
and more antibiotics,
pesticides, herbicides,
you know, to these crops
to keep them healthy.
But in the end, we're the
ones consuming those crops.
So how are we going to
meet this worldwide demand
for agricultural products
without accepting
these side effects being
applied to what we eat?
Well, all you have to think
about is, is what could go wrong
with this system?
Can we stay on that same path?
So if you've been paying
any attention to the news
over the past few months,
and in fact, the CDC released
an update this morning,
there have been three deaths
and 558 people sick from
that vicious little creature
known as the cucumber.
And this morning,
they actually said that,
that number of sick has passed
over 600 people already.
Why is this happening?
For the most part, it's
salmonella poisoning
that's occurring because these
crops are being fertilized
with different types of manures,
and then these crops are
getting these diseases on them,
and then they're going off to
market and we consume them.
So what about food safety?
You know, is there anybody
out there who's keeping an eye
on the food that
we're actually eating?
Most people would say,
okay, and yet this harmless
little cucumber has now
made that many people sick,
and is responsible for at least
three deaths at this point.
What about our resources?
Water resources to start.
Again, if you haven't
been paying any attention
to the news you might
have missed this,
but most of the Western U.S.,
specifically California,
is in the midst of
a massive drought.
In fact, they refer to it as
a four-year record drought.
And they've instituted
massive changes out there
and fines if you use
too much water.
I found this photograph
here just to be remarkable
in that this is an
agricultural field.
There's a tractor.
They really don't
have that much ground
that they have to care
for with that tractor.
That's the only area that's
getting water at this moment.
So we've got these droughts
that are coming out.
What's it going to do to
the agricultural crops?
Well, they're going to lower
the amount they can harvest.
They're going to
increase the prices,
and then we're going to have
to come up with some other
ways to grow these crops
to feed the people.
And then it comes back to the
statement of sustainability.
And that is, is how long
are we willing to put up with
all of this?
Or maybe the other
way to look at it is,
how much longer can the
Earth put up with it?
And if you look at this as
the world's population booms,
will its resources
be enough for us?
Well, these are mostly the
predictions that are coming out
of reports, this one
from National Geographic.
If you look at that,
it basically says
the human population
is increasing.
We've said that already.
And with that, our agricultural
output has to increase
to match it as well.
But most experts say that
we're not going to be able
to sustain that type of
output, because the resources
are going down, and the
pollution is going up.
So what's going to
happen over time is,
is that the amount
of food produced is suddenly
going to crash.
And likewise, you're
going to get more and more
starving people, so then
your human population
is going to start to
crash as well.
So we really have to take
a global view of all this,
and start examining it to say
maybe traditional agriculture
is not for the long term.
Maybe we need to
start supplementing it
with alternatives that
are out there.
And the alternative
obviously that I'm here
to talk to you about
tonight is the alternative
of aquaponics.
So what is aquaponics?
I've actually heard
people give me a variety
of definitions to it, but I
stick with this kind of more,
a basic form, and that is,
is that it's an integrated
production system
where you're raising
both plant and fish crops,
but it's in a completely
soilless environment
such that you get the
benefits of the fish
essentially feeding those crops,
and those crops returning
fresh water back to the fish.
There are some others
out there that,
they still include
certain types of soils
in their aquaponics, or they
enhance it with an addition
of different types of
nutrients or fertilizers.
I'd argue that, that's
not truly aquaponics
because it's a
hybrid version it.
Aquaponics says you're
doing it all in water.
What do we know
about aquaponics?
Well, I'm going to
show you today that,
I think it's a sustainable
production mechanism.
And that is that you
will be able to see this
closed circuit of
nutrients, water, and energy
just revolving around
growing both of these crops.
It's also a natural
production system.
It's fish producing fertilizer
that's feeding the plants,
returning fresh water
to the fish.
There's nothing artificial
being dumped into the system.
It's highly efficient
because it's what we refer to
as a closed loop
agriculture system,
Which means that things
don't enter and exit
throughout the production.
In this case, the water is
just recycled round and round
between the different
organisms so that you get
production.
Therefore, it's a conservative
use of water, space,
time, and labor.
Also, you can't apply
any of those biocides,
pesticides, herbicides,
insecticides to it.
Most of those are
used on the plants,
but almost every one of
them is toxic to the fish.
So if you did come across
a disease outbreak,
if you did have pests that
are in there and you apply it,
within hours, you'll actually
watch all the fish die,
and there shuts off the
nutrients going to the plants.
So you actually
cannot apply these
to the plants in the system,
and some people will say,
well what about the fish?
Do you give them antibiotics?
Do you treat them for disease?
Turns out, almost all of the
medicines available for fish
are toxic for plants.
So it really cuts you off
there that you can't add
all these different
biocides to the system.
As I mentioned before, it
produces both a protein crop
in the form of fish, as
well as a vegetable crop.
So you're practically raising
an entire meal.
If we can sort of tie into
that and try to figure out
how we can grow a dessert,
then we'd really have a nice,
three-course meal
for the night.
And then the last part of
which I want to talk about
a little later in
this presentation
is the fact that aquaponics
has the potential
to produce crops 365
days of the year.
It's done so, if the
aquaponics is done
in a controlled environment,
such as a greenhouse.
Around here, I think
most of us would agree,
that we'd be in favor of that.
I've walked into an
aquaponics greenhouse
in the middle of January
and seen about an eighth
of an acre of corn growing.
Now you might say to
yourselves, well it's corn,
we get a lot of
that in the summer.
Yeah, but think about what a
fresh ear of corn tastes like
in the middle of January.
And you could have
that right next door.
So it does have some unique
aspects that tends to attract
a lot of people to it as well.
Now that's not to say
you can't do aquaponics
without a greenhouse.
I've seen people do it in
their garage, their basement.
Nowadays, they're trying
to do it in warehouses.
On top of buildings.
And then if you, the
further south you head,
say the tropics, they do
away with the greenhouse
all together, because
they don't have a need to.
It's summer 12
months of the year.
Now one aspect of this,
as I frequently get
asked by people,
well, aquaponics sounds
new, sounds risky.
It's not something
I want to get into.
I'm going to wait and
see, you know those people
who get into it,
do they fall apart?
The fact is, is that
aquaponics is not new.
There is evidence, documentation
that over 1300 years ago,
the Aztecs actually had what's
referred to as chinampas,
and you can see them right
here in this diagram.
They're actually floating
rafts that they would push out
into lakes.
And in those rafts, they
would have plants growing.
And that was basically an
early form of aquaponics.
Water, where obviously
there are fish in the lake
that are producing nutrients,
and plants on these floating
rafts that would absorb
the nutrients and grow.
If you actually go back
about 1500 years ago,
the Chinese used an integrated
system of rice paddy fields
and fish.
In fact, this photo here
is actually a recent photo
because they're still doing it.
They haven't given up on it.
They raise the fish right
in the rice paddy field,
and they harvest the rice,
and the fish provide them
with the nutrients.
So aquaponics has been done
for a very long period of time.
It's just nowadays becoming,
I guess you could say,
technologically advanced.
And that's why I add the term
here "modern aquaponics."
Modern aquaponics is
where we start to add
technology into it.
Get computers involved in
controlling the green house.
Using different types of
technology to make the fish
more efficient at feeding and
the plants growing faster.
And I put up three different
bullet points here.
One of them I wanted to start
off with was Leonard Pampel.
He actually worked at the
Milwaukee Public Museum
in the 1960s and 1970s,
and he actually got three
patents when he was there.
And each one of them was
basically based upon,
at the museum, looking at fish
displays that they had there
that the fish tanks
would turn very green.
So what he did is,
behind the scenes,
the place where most of us
don't actually get to see
at the museum, he started
irrigating some of these plants
that he had in the back or
the back scenes of the museum,
and the plants would essentially
neutralize the water,
they would absorb the nutrients
and return clear water
back to the fish display
that people were looking at.
I just happen to mention it
because just three weeks ago,
I got a phone call from
a Mr. Leonard Pampel
who lives in northern
Wisconsin at the age of 96
and said, can I come
see the University's
new Aquaponics
Innovation Center?
And I said, how do I
have to get you there?
Do I have to come
and pick you up?
Can you make it?
He says, my neighbor
will drive me there.
And there he is, and
he came and looked
at the Aquaponics
Innovation Center,
spent a half day with
us when we were there.
He loved what he saw.
He loved to see where
we're taking aquaponics.
And he basically just said,
stop by, call me anytime.
I'd like to see
this program grow.
And he says, I have a lot
more good ideas, he says,
that I didn't share
with the Public Museum
even after I retired, he says,
that I could share with you.
And, you know, it's really
unique that you get to meet
one of the fore-founders of
an actual new modern industry
such as that.
He's not alone.
In the 1970s, there
was a facility known as
the New Alchemy Institute
at North Carolina State.
And they actually
started publishing
some of the more recent
science articles on what fish
and plants could be grown
in aquaponics.
And then the University of the
Virgin Islands in the 1980s,
a man by the name
of Dr. Jim Rakocy,
he did something that kind
of took it a step further
and that was that he
started applying economics
to aquaponics and said,
you know, you can talk
all you want about
sustainable food production,
but if it's not economical,
people are not going to do it.
So he started doing the math.
And what he found
is that essentially,
if you treat aquaponics as a
local food production system,
it's quite affordable and can
compete with anything else
that you can buy
in the supermarket.
He said, it's when you
add distance into it,
that aquaponics suffers
a little bit because now
you're getting into
transporting these products.
And you really can't beat
the current transportation
system for most of the goods
that we eat.
So that kind of gives you
a summary of the history
of aquaponics.
We're in the next
generation now,
the modern aquaponic world,
and we have to start addressing
some of the questions
or challenges that are out there
and I'll get to those a
little later in the lecture.
Go back to the
topic of sustainability
and that is, in order
for us to actually look
at aquaponics as a
sustainable food program,
we have to know what
its sustainability is.
Again, what we can do is
compare it to traditional
agriculture.
As I mentioned already,
it's a natural system
that results in the
recycling of nutrients.
So that helps us go a long way.
But the other is, is if we
compare it for some other
production systems, we
can see, how about beef?
It's pretty odd.
I put this presentation
together a little while ago
and yet this morning, on CNN,
they had a topic that said,
"Is beef the next SUV?"
I don't know if anybody read
that article, it was out there.
It caught my eye more
along the lines of,
what are they talking about?
Comparing a car to a cow.
The whole article
was about the fact
that beef production
worldwide is in a decline.
And the reason is, is that
it takes a lot of energy
and resources to raise a cow.
And in the end, it's
not very sustainable.
I just used one factor
here, and that is water
because that's what's
used in aquaponics,
and beef basically requires
between 5,000 to 20,000 liters
of water to raise one
kilogram of beef.
That's not really good.
That's not an
efficient use of water.
But I wanted to be fair
here as well, and that is,
is if you look at
extensive aquaculture,
now aquaculture is fish farming,
and extensive aquaculture
is that fish farming
which is done outdoors,
say, in ponds.
And what you can see is, is
that it's not too much better
when it comes to the water use.
You still need between 2500 to
over 375,000 liters of water
to raise a kilogram of fish.
So aquaculture in itself
is not the most perfect
sustainable system when it
comes to food production,
or I should say
extensive aquaculture.
But when you move things indoors
into a circulating system
such as aquaponics, suddenly
you don't have nature
playing a role in the process.
You're controlling nature.
And it turns out
that in aquaponics,
you need about 100
liters of water to raise
a kilogram of fish, because
that water is constantly
recycled through the system.
So at least from a
water perspective,
aquaponics appears to
be on the higher end
of sustainability,
especially, you know,
for water resources,
but in terms of food
production as well.
Now the other question, and
this one's rather interesting,
is that people say, well
where does aquaponics fit
in the grand scheme?
You know, what is its roots?
And I would argue that
it's probably a subset
of aquaculture.
And I find this really
interesting just because
this past summer, I was on
actually a federal review panel
where they were trying to
set up federal programs
in aquaponics, and this was
actually the first question
they asked.
Where does it fit?
Does it fit into
traditional agriculture?
Does it fit into aquaculture?
Does it fit into hydroponics?
And they really didn't
know where to put it.
Again, I was on the panel,
and I kind of argued with them
and said, I think it's a
sub-set of aquaculture.
Aquaculture is the science
and industry of raising fish.
And you're doing
that in aquaponics.
The other is, is that you do it
under controlled conditions.
Now I already mentioned
extensive to intensive ponds
flow through recycled systems.
Aquaponics, to me, seems
to be a recycled system.
It's recycling the water.
And you get the benefits
from aquaculture from it,
and that is, is that raising
fish is the most efficient
production of protein.
I have this little
name over here of FCR,
which stands for Food
Conversion Ratio.
It's a very simple equation.
How many pounds of food do
I have to feed my animal
to get a pound of growth?
And for most fish
production and aquaculture,
it ranges between one to two.
In other words, you can
feed fish one pound of food
and get one pound of
growth out of those fish.
You can't do much
better than that.
But some fish are a
little sloppy eaters,
and it may raise up to two.
If you do compare
that with things,
the closest is chickens
where it's about 2.5 pounds
of food to a pound of growth.
Then come pigs at
about 30 to one.
And then once again, our beef
comes along with the cows,
and they're like 100 to one.
So fish are a very
efficient user of the food
we're giving them.
They turn it into body growth,
and that's actually the
protein that you eat.
And again, it's a
conservative use of resources,
it's sustainable and consistent,
and aquaculture worldwide
is on a rapid incline
so that essentially, it's
becoming a very profitable
business for a lot of people.
So it seems that it
fits that model.
Now if that's true,
then we have to look at
a couple of questions.
And that is, again, I go
around and I ask people
and I say, do you eat seafood?
And they say, sure
I eat seafood.
And I say, well, where does
your seafood come from?
And where do you think
the general answer is
that people give you?
Supermarket, restaurant,
and then I say, well, where
does it come from before that?
And almost everybody will
say, it comes from the wild.
It comes from nature.
Well, the fact is, is less
and less is coming from nature
every year.
If you look at this
graph that's up here
and it shows you the
years across the top,
it shows you our stocks
of wild fish in the world.
Oceans, great Lakes and
what's happening to them.
And the fact is, is that all
of our fish that are out there
in the wild are already
fully exploited.
We're catching as much of them
as they are available to us.
In fact, many of them
are over-exploited
and quite a number of them,
32% of our fish stocks,
have completely collapsed.
So even though people think
their food comes from the wild,
more and more, or I should
say less and less of it
is actually coming from the wild
because there just aren't
any other fish out there
anymore.
So if that's the case,
then where are the fish,
the seafood that we eat, where
is it going to come from?
Well, I can tell you where
it's going to come from,
it's going to come
from fish farms.
Or farms such as
aquaponics growers.
Now here's some staggering
statistics about that seafood
that you're consuming.
And that is, did you know
that fish and fish products
or seafood contribute to
the largest food commodity
that are traded
internationally.
That's more than chickens,
cows, pigs, fruits,
and vegetables.
The U.S., though, imports
90% of its seafood.
So now you know.
It's not generally coming
from the wild anymore,
but this other thing is,
is that it's not coming
from the United States either.
Most of it's coming
from foreign countries.
But in those foreign
countries, about half of it
is farm-raised seafood.
So next time you go
to the supermarket
and you look at
the display case,
if they don't have signs
that say "Product of"
and list a country,
ask the grocer.
And if they have
that information,
which they actually do have,
they may just not be
sharing it with you,
but if they have that
information, then
they'll tell you,
well, that's from this
country, and this country.
Then say to them, well is
it farm raised or wild?
And then you'll know if you
have a really good grocer
because they should know
the answer to that question.
And then they can tell you, and
I think what you'll find is,
is 50% of what's in that display
case is coming from a farm.
Unfortunately, it's a foreign
farm, not a U.S. farm.
What impact does this
have on our economy?
As I said, it's the single
largest food commodity
that's traded.
This graph over here
basically shows you,
the blue arrows are
the imports of seafood,
whereas the green ones
are what we export.
And the disappointing thing
are the light blue arrows
down here which you can
see in the negative,
which means that we import
more than we export.
And you might say, well
what does that add up to
economically?
It adds up to about $10.4
billion dollars a year
in a seafood deficit.
So it's costing
us a lot of money
to bring in that seafood.
And the part that I
usually put up here, which,
if the financial aspect doesn't
kind of get you confused
or upset, this other one
usually gets me pretty upset,
and that is, is all that
foreign import of seafood
comes into this country,
but the FDA, the Food
and Drug Administration,
can only monitor as much
as they have resources
and labor that can monitor it,
and they're publicly
open about it,
that they can only inspect
about one to two percent
of that imported seafood.
So now you know that your
seafood is coming probably
from a foreign country.
It's going to be farm
raised, as well as wild.
And that when it
reaches this country,
only about one to two
percent of it is inspected.
The rest of it, you're
basically eating and hoping
that for the best,
that there aren't any
contaminants in it, any
types of pharmaceuticals,
any types of diseases,
because we just don't have
the capacity to inspect
all that seafood.
So what's the simple
answer to that?
It really is quite
simple, and that is,
go to your grocery store or
when you get your seafood,
buy U.S.-raised seafood.
Therefore, you know
where it's coming from.
Whether it's farm raised or
wild is up to you to decide,
but then if you look at it
and say, well farm raised,
I know the path from where
it came out as an egg
and grew up to my food,
you know that, that food
is heavily inspected
because the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and the FDA
looks at all of our food
and inspects it closely,
and you know that, that's
the food then that's landing
on your plate.
So it's a little promo there
for U.S. farm-raised
seafood actually.
It's the safest seafood
that's actually out there.
Now the other aspect I just
mentioned to you when I said,
well it's about even now
that the seafood you eat,
half of it is coming from farms,
and half of it's
coming from the wild.
Well the fact is, these
are the projections,
and what you can is, is
now that we're in 2015,
more and more of that seafood,
so the lighter colors up
here, is farm-raised seafood.
The darker colors
are the wild catch.
So in other words, farm-raised
seafood has actually
surpassed the amount
that's caught in the wild,
and that number, they only
expect to just keep increasing.
But that's kind of
an easy prediction.
You'll notice this has
kind of fallen flat.
I showed you the graph that
said nearly all the wild fish
that are out there
are fully exploited.
So where are they going
to get more of them?
They can't, the ocean's
just not producing it.
So as the demand goes
up, all of that demand
has to be met from
farm-raised fish.
All right?
Otherwise, there's
predictions out there,
and that is, well what about
the popularity of seafood?
Will it grow?
Will more people want seafood?
And the fact is, is
that about 45% of people
in 2009 were eating
farm-raised fish.
By 2030, they expect
that to equal up to 62%.
More and more people
are looking at seafood
saying, you know, when I read
about the health benefits,
there's a lot out there
that I like to hear.
It's really low in
polyunsaturated fatty acids.
It's really good for
your heart health.
It's really good for your
mental health.
So seafood overall, from
a nutritional perspective,
is a well-received,
well-respected
type of protein
that's out there.
And more and more people,
as they understand that,
are increasing their
intake of seafood.
Now you might look
at that and say,
well, that's a pretty
dramatic increase.
And it is.
The sad part is, is that
not much of that increase
comes from the United States.
We've been eating about
the same amount of seafood
over the past decade as
we are right now.
So the rest of the world
is increasing their uptake
of seafood.
Here in the U.S., we
generally look at it and say,
I eat my seafood once
a week, if you're good.
Once a month, if you
can afford it.
And we don't eat as much
as what the world is.
The world views seafood as
almost like their fast food,
where we kind of look at
it as more of a luxury meal
that we go out to a
restaurant to actually have.
Now if you remember when
I started on this path,
I said that the question
that's being asked
is where does aquaponics fit?
And I argued that it
fits into aquaculture.
Some people said, no, it's
really a subset of hydroponics
because isn't it really just
feeding plants raw nutrients
to get them to grow?
Well, partially.
But aquaponics does it in
a little more natural way
than what hydroponics does?
When you look at hydroponics,
and here's just a
schematic of it,
you basically have plants
growing in long trays.
And yes, their roots down
here are floating in water,
but that water is supplemented
with basically inorganic
minerals and nutrients.
So in other words,
they have to add up
a considerable amount of
macro and micro nutrients
that are obtained through
industrial or mining resources.
And then they mix
them up into a slurry,
and they spread them out in
the water that the plants
are growing in, so that they
can absorb these nutrients.
The problem with that is,
is industrial production
of nutrients is a very
energy inefficient
and polluting way of
producing nutrients.
And the other is, is mining
is just basically strip mining
these nutrients from
all across the globe.
And I'll talk a little bit
about that later on as well.
A lot of those nutrients
are not strip mined
in the United States, they're
done in foreign countries.
And those countries then
ship those into the U.S.
Well, they're strip mining
them and they're running
out of things such as
potassium, such as sulphur,
and therefore, they
control the market
where they raise the
prices for these nutrients,
and we just have to accept
it, so we can bring them in
as fertilizers.
There's a big issue there
that's kind of a
political issue, too,
because if there's a
country that dominates, say,
potassium mining, and we
have to buy from them,
well, they can make
demands upon our country
at that point.
Tell us that they
want us, therefore,
to export to them really
inexpensive U.S. goods
so that they will send
the potassium to us.
So there's kind of a
political play there as well
when it comes to
mining resources
and who controls the dollar.
The other aspect is, is
that it's a lot of nutrients
that they put into hydroponics.
In fact, they put in excess,
because they don't ever want
the plants wanting more.
And then the last is,
is that it's using up
finite resources.
These are exterior
resources being brought in,
flooded to these plants and
then essentially remixed
the next day and
done all over again.
So it's not a recycling
of natural resources.
It's really a
one-way flow pattern
when it comes to hydroponics.
And again, it's one of the
reasons why yes, aquaponics
kind of merges aquaculture
and hydroponics together,
but I think it
leans a lot heavier
on the aquaculture side than
it does on its relationship
to hydroponics.
Now if we look at a
typical aquaponics system,
it is just that.
It's integrated,
or a hybrid system
that contains on one
side your fish production
and on the other side, your
plant production.
So an aquaponics system
is really quite simple,
and that is, is that you
have the fish tanks here.
The fish spend their
entire life in those tanks.
This is where you feed them.
This is where you
watch them grow.
This is where you'll
harvest them from.
What they are
contributing to the system
is that they are
providing nutrients.
In a crude form, you could
say it's fish manure,
but it's raw nutrients they're
eliminating from their bodies
into the water.
Some of those nutrients
plants can use right away,
but most of them they can't.
So you have this middle
section right here
where you can see two terms:
one is called a clarifier,
and one is called a
mineralization tank.
I'll show you another
slide in a few minutes,
but what's taking place here
is that you have beneficial
bacteria growing in
these other tanks,
in these filter tanks.
And what the bacteria do, is
they convert the nutrients
that the fish are releasing
into an immediately usable form
for the plants.
Most people don't realize,
fish, 50% of their waste
is actually given
off as ammonia.
Well, ammonia would be
generally toxic to most plants
if you expose them to it.
But these bacteria
take the ammonia,
and they convert it into
nitrite and then nitrate.
So by the time the
water reaches over here,
where the plants are, it's
now in the form of nitrate
that the plants
readily take up.
Another aspect to it, which
is the mineralization tank,
is that fish just don't
release as waste potassium,
sulphur, magnesium and calcium.
They release fish manure.
But it has all of that in it.
So once again, there's
a whole other group
of beneficial bacteria that
decompose that solid waste.
And during decomposition,
they literally do release
the calcium, the magnesium,
the sulphates, the phosphates
into the water that then
travels over to where the plants
can absorb those nutrients.
So the little known
aspect about aquaponics
that people don't realize
is, yes, you're growing fish,
yes you're growing plants,
but you're also a
bacterial farmer,
because you need those
beneficial bacteria to complete
this conversion for you.
And they're, like I said, the
unsung heroes of aquaponics.
Once that conversion is
done, the water then goes
into your plant grow area,
which we'll talk about
a little bit more, depending
on what plants you're raising.
They absorb most
of those nutrients
and then that water
basically heads its way back
and goes back to the fish tanks,
where the fish get cleaner
water back to them, and
they renew this cycle
over and over again.
So talk about the fish
just a little bit.
We'll talk at the end,
we'll have questions.
I'll talk about the
fish a little bit here,
and that is when you
ask about aquaponics,
what I can tell you is, is
currently the king of aquaponics
is tilapia.
People raise them for
a variety of reasons,
which we'll just cover
a couple of them here.
But one of the reasons I
see, as a fish biologist,
that people like tilapia,
is that they are a very
forgiving fish.
In other words, you can
forget to turn that pump on
for a day, or you can go
on vacation for the weekend
and you'll come back and
you'll look in the tank,
and they'll have their little
fins up in the air like this
saying, we're okay.
(laughs)
I think that's probably the
main attraction for people
to use tilapia.
We can make mistakes while
we're trying to grow them,
and they'll still be there.
I put together just a
little chart over here
to show you why.
The reason for that is, is
that tilapia have very wide
tolerance ranges.
In other words, they can
stand different conditions
over a wide span.
Starting off with the first one.
They'll grow just fine
between the temperatures of 64
to 90 degrees.
Over 26 degrees, and
they'll handle it just fine.
All right?
You compare that
with any other fish
that we have around here, say
the native Wisconsin fish,
and they can withstand something
more in the range of about
five degree change, and then
they would just die.
So it's nice to have a fish
that'll take it easy on you
if the temperature changes.
The same goes for
oxygen, pH, ammonia,
which I spoke about already.
Nitrites, carbon dioxide.
This is a fish that has an
amazingly wide tolerance range
for almost all conditions.
And again, personally,
I feel that that's one
of the driving forces as
to why people like to raise
tilapia in aquaponics.
They're afraid to make
mistakes, and this is a fish
that basically will say to
you, it'll be all right.
We'll get through this together.
(laughs)
Right?
They also have another
feature about them
and that is, is that if you're
raising them in the range,
a temperature range they
like, you get remarkable
growth rates out of them.
In others words, you can
take a one-inch tilapia
and you can raise it to
about a pound and a half
to two pound tilapia in
about six months.
That's a rapid
turnaround for a fish.
But that helps in aquaponics
because it means that
you get a product out of
your system every six months.
And a lot of people, whether
they're feeding themselves
or their families, or whether
they are trying to sell them
to make this into a business,
it's good that you
get two crops a year
out of your protein source
in the system.
Now how does that differ?
Well, I'll talk about this
facility in a few minutes.
As Chris Cirmo mentioned,
the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point
opened the Aquaponics Innovation
Center this past April.
It was a really nice event
that kind of blew me away,
especially because
we had three days
where we opened the doors
and said, come on in and see
what it's all about.
And in three days, we had
700 people pass through
the facility, who all wanted
to know about aquaponics.
So really, it showed to me
there's a tremendous interest
out there, but it also
is kind of unique.
It catches people's eyes
as they walk through it.
And then they would get
kind of an excitement
to get into it.
One of the projects
we're trying to do
is we're trying to diversify
that fish crop.
Tilapia's good, it's forgiving.
It grows fast.
But if you wonder when you
see tilapia in the stores
and you see it on
a restaurant menu,
almost all the tilapia
that you're consuming
is a foreign import.
It comes from fish
farms elsewhere.
In fact, 90% of the tilapia
consumed in the U.S.
is foreign imports of tilapia.
And again, we kind of
covered that a little bit.
Who knows where's it's been,
where it hung out last night,
and who it was drinking
partner with during the course
of that night.
What's in that
tilapia at this point?
We don't know it comes
from a foreign country,
and it probably has not been
inspected by the FDA.
So one of the things that the
Aquaponics Innovation Center
is to do is to
diversify its fish crop.
And the angle we took
from it is, well,
why are we not raising in
these aquaponics systems
Wisconsin fish?
We've got quite a
number of fish here
that should grow
well in captivity,
so let's give it a try.
And one of the fish that we
started with here are Walleye.
Walleye show up on a lot
of menus around here,
especially on the
Friday night fish fry,
but it has always had
kind of a draw back,
and that is, is that Walleye
have always been farmed
in ponds.
And when you raise
a fish in a pond,
you suffer through this,
what do you want to call it,
four to six month
period known as winter?
(chuckles)
It really slows its growth down.
So it generally takes
a walleye farmer
about one to two years
to grow a walleye
from a small size to even
a one pound fish.
So what we have done is,
is we've moved them indoors
into the aquaponics system.
Now they're in a green house
where they're growing 365 days
out of the year.
And if you look at
the blue and the purple line,
this shows you the
growth that we're getting
between April, over a course
of a year essentially,
and we've been able to
get a one and a half
to one and three
quarter-pound walleye
to grow in a shorter
period of about
10 to 12 months.
Now fish farmers, aquaculture
growers, they like that.
That's at least one
product a year.
But then we're taking
it a step further,
and we took these walleye
and we basically mated them
with their cousin, the sauger,
and created what we
call hybrid walleyes.
Now somebody actually
asked me the other day
and they said, oh you're
creating the infamous
Frankenfish.
These are dangerous if
they ever get out there.
In this case, no we're not.
Because you can go fish
in the Mississippi River
and you can catch
a hybrid walleye.
Sauger and walleye actually
naturally reproduce
with one another.
So these fish exist in the wild.
We haven't created
really anything new.
We're just creating
them in captivity.
And then we added on here the
green and the orange lines
that are here.
And what we've been able
to do is these hybrid fish,
these hybrid walleye,
show advanced growth.
So we've been able to get
them to a one and a half
to two pound walleye
in nine months.
And this is all in
an aquaponics system.
So we basically label these
as our phase one, phase two
grow out periods.
They start out this
small, and over here,
they're a two-pound fish,
which is more than enough
for a nice platter on a
Friday night fish fry.
Most of that brought
about simply by moving
the whole process indoors
into a green house.
So we do think that there's
potential for introducing
more and more
types of local fish
into the aquaponics
production system,
and getting products out in
as little as nine months,
who knows, maybe if
we try something else,
we could even lower that
and get closer to that
six-month threshold
with tilapia.
So the potential is there,
and we have some early success
that's showing.
And then on the
other side of it,
you've got to look at plants.
Well, the nice thing
about aquaponics is,
is that you can raise
pretty much any plant
that you want to.
I just put them into four
major categories here,
which is leafy
greens, your lettuces,
your micro-greens, which
a lot of restaurants like.
Then your rooting crops; then
of course your fruiting crops.
You can raise any one
of them and all of them
in any type of
aquaponics system.
The only thing you
have to keep in mind
is your expectations.
What I can tell is, is that
your leafy greens like lettuce,
you can grow from a seed to
a nice full head of lettuce
in six weeks.
So that basically gives
you a rapid turnaround
for your crops in that system.
The microgreens, even shorter.
You need about two,
two and a half weeks,
and you can get microgreens
produced.
No problem there.
It's your root crops
and your fruit crops
that basically you've got to
give them a little more time.
Root crops, whether
they're radishes,
or onions can be grown in it,
but then you're talking about
something more along the lines
of about 10 to 12 weeks that
it's going to take them.
And of course, fruiting crops,
that's where you've got to
let the plant mature first
and flower, and then you've
got to let the flower
turn into the fruit.
So there you're looking
at something that
could be as short
as three months,
but more or less is
usually on the same cycle
as the tilapia and that
you'll get your crops
every six months.
So they're all,
possible in aquaponics,
it's just you have to
set your expectations
where you expect to
make those harvests
based on the plants
that you're growing.
Now I wanted to
bring it back to this,
and that is, is so you can
grow any plant that you want.
True, but the way or the
system of the aquaponics
that you raise them in has
to be a little different.
There are three plant production
systems in aquaponics.
The first one is known as
the nutrient film technique.
If you look at the
picture over here,
it should look a little
familiar from a previous slide.
That is what they raise
hydroponic crops in.
The concept is, is that
you just have a gutter,
and in that gutter
basically is pumped in
a little bit of water.
If you pop the top
off of the gutter,
there's about a quarter to
an eighth of an inch of water
streaming down the middle
of that gutter.
The plants' roots basically
kind of sway or flow into it
to pick up the nutrients.
Why am I talking about
nutrient film technique?
Because it still
exists in aquaponics
because it's the best way
to get hydroponic growers
to convert over to
aquaponics growers.
They already have
the infrastructure,
they just have to
add the fish into it
and stop adding in all
those inorganic nutrients
into it instead.
So it has a constant
flow of water.
It has a really
small amount of water
that has to flow
through the system,
since it's only about
a quarter to an eighth
of an inch thick.
But the disadvantages to it,
is that you need a biofilter.
Because that water coming
through it is so thin,
not only do the plant
roots grow in it,
but a lot of algae tends
to grow in it as well.
And you've got to
filter out that algae,
or they'll use up all
the nutrients right away,
and then your plants will
basically just start to die off.
So you have to have
some biofilter.
The other is, is that
you get lower yields
from the other systems
that I'll show you
because the plants are
nice and evenly spaced,
but you're limited by the
length of these gutters.
The other is, is if you
actually wanted to do aquaponics
with nutrient film
technique, you'd have to buy
the hydroponic components
or infrastructure,
and they tend to be very pricey.
So you would have a
higher startup cost there.
And overall, the system
is of a low stability.
And the reason for that is,
is that it has the least
amount of water in it
compared to the other systems
I'll show you because they
only have that quarter inch
of water flowing by the plants.
So if you were to add
a little bit of this
or a little bit of
that and then too much
of a third component,
there's too much of it
flowing through everything.
It doesn't get dilute
within the system.
The other is, is
that these plants,
because they're at a low density
and you have such little water,
the nutrient uptake
is relatively low,
which means nutrient-rich
water is returning back
to your fish, and they
can only withstand that
for a while before
they start to suffer
due to polluted
water conditions.
So like I said,
nutrient film technique,
generally a holdover
from hydroponics.
But some people like
it because it's clean,
it's compact, it fits
into a nice space,
and doesn't require
really that much water.
Another type is referred to
as the media grow beds.
And media grow beds,
as you can see here,
are essentially large channels
in which some type
of media or substrate
is put into the bottom of it.
There's really only one
requirement for that substrate,
and that is, is that it must
not dissolve in water.
Because the only thing
the substrate is doing,
is it's providing a surface
for the roots of the plants
to grab on to.
So where we see
media-based systems,
and you can see it
in this picture here,
is where you get tall plants.
Tall plants need
strong root structures,
and they hold on to the
substrate and the media
that's down there.
So if you start talking about
growing things, like I said,
corn, tomatoes, cucumbers,
you're going to want
a media-based system
because these plants need
to dig in to grow up.
As I put up here,
the advantages is,
the media that's in here
acts as the biofilter.
As the water flows through
pipes in the system,
that basically rains water out,
it's carrying some of
those waste products,
fish manure in them, and
they'll land in that media,
and the media will
cling on to them,
and then have
decomposition take place
right in the media bed.
So the solids are actually
found in the media,
but the other thing you find
is that if you dig in there,
and bring it up, you'll not
only come up with a handful
of media, but you'll come up
with a handful of fish manure.
And what's there as well are
the bacteria breaking it down.
So instead of having
a mineralization tank,
you actually have bacteria
growing down the bottom
of these media-based beds.
That helps compact the
space a little bit.
The disadvantages is, is
that you need a lot of water
flowing through the system.
You also have
difficulties when it comes
to maintenance and cleaning.
As I just said, dig your
hand down into that media,
and you'll come up with
fish manure and bacteria.
A lot of people don't
like the odor of that.
They don't like
the sight of that.
Well, if you want
to clean it out,
you pretty much have
to remove your plants,
hose down the
media, wash it out,
re-plant your plants and
start all over again.
So there's a high maintenance
cost when it comes to
these media-based systems.
And obviously here, as
you get those solids
from the fish manure
building up in here,
you can get clumps
of these manure,
which then basically channels
the water through the system.
And if your plants are
not growing anywhere
near the channel,
they start to droop
because they're not getting
all the water that they need.
On the flip side of it, is
that the nutrient uptake
by the plants is very high.
They're sitting right
there amongst the bacteria
having the conversion of
the nutrients done for them,
and they immediately
take up the nutrients.
So there's a rapid uptake of
nutrients in these systems,
and you get fairly rapid
growth of all these
different types of plants
that you're trying to grow.
And then that brings
us to the third type,
which is known as the
deep water culture,
or also known as
the raft system.
As more of a fish biologist
than a plant grower,
I always laugh when I
see deep water culture,
because these are basically
what they refer to
as large ponds or pools
that you're going to put
the plants in.
They're a foot deep.
Maybe for a botanist,
that's a deep water culture.
For a fish biologist,
I'm thinking thirty,
forty-feet deep.
(laughs)
So essentially,
they're a foot deep.
Where they get
their raft name from
is that you have Styrofoam
rafts that literally float
on top of that water,
and your plants are planted
in holes that poke through
the styrofoam.
The roots dangle down into this
deep pool full of nutrients,
and the plants grow on the
top side of that.
It's probably the most
common system in aquaponics
for raising the plants because
you can build these rafts
of any different sizes.
It's easy to float foam
right on top of the water.
And the other thing, as
you can see in the picture,
it's primarily used for
growing the leafy greens.
The ones that have a
six-week turnaround
from seed to harvest.
You can probably also
see the drawback.
I mean, why do they not use
these for growing tomato plants?
Well, the roots would grow
down into the deep water,
the plant would
grow up on the top,
as soon as the plant's top
growth is bigger than the roots,
it would flip over.
Because it's just
floating as a raft.
So they use shorter growing
plants such as the microgreens
and the leafy greens.
There's a constant flow
of water going through it.
You don't have to have an
enormous amount of water.
It basically sits in these
pools until the water
gets replenished by a pump.
And it's easy to
maintain and clean
because you literally
just lift up the rafts,
scrub them down.
If the deep water looks
dirty, you flush it out.
You fill it with more water
and you seal it back up again
and it's all ready to grow.
And you can do that in
an hour or so.
You may need a biofilter.
Another nice thing about
it is the bacteria,
those beneficial bacteria
really like to grow
in these deep water cultures.
But sometimes, it's not enough.
You need more of the bacteria.
So you may actually have
to have one of those
mineralization tanks.
There is a large volume
of water going through it.
You can also aerate the roots,
so that you get
healthy root growth,
which usually leads to
healthy leafy growth,
and the nutrient uptake by the
plants is really, really high
in these systems.
So again, they are
the most common.
They're the most talked
about and studied
not only because they seem
to be the most efficient
and productive, but
on the flip side,
you have to look at it and say,
I can't grow all the
different crops I want.
I can only grow those
that will float on top
of these rafts and not
turn the thing over
and drown out all your plants.
Now I didn't forget about them,
and I wanted to come
back and that is,
whether you call them
beneficial bacteria
or you call them
aquaponic biofilm,
you have to remember that if
you're an aquaponic producer,
you're growing the fish and
you're growing the plants,
which you can see, but you're
also cultivating bacteria.
Before you look at that and
say, wow, those bacteria
they look fascinating.
No, that's just plastic.
The brown, goopy stuff?
That's the bacteria.
All the plastic does is,
is that if you didn't give
the bacteria something
to hold on to,
it would be going
on a water park ride
all throughout your
aquaponics system
and suffering pretty bad.
You want them to sit still
and you want them to do
the conversions that you want,
so you just give them things
like plastic to hold on to.
And then they'll stay in
your filtration systems
or your filtration tanks.
What are they?
Well, there's their official
name in case you wanted
to memorize it for the quiz
after the presentation.
Nitrifying autotrophic
bacteria consortium.
Sounds intimidating, actually.
(laughs)
It's made up of two groups:
the nitroso-bacteria
and the nitro-bacteria.
What do they do?
Well, as I mentioned
before, fish give off a lot
of their waste in
the form of ammonia.
What do we know about ammonia?
It's highly toxic to fish,
and it's very toxic to plants.
That would shut down your
aquaponics system in an instant.
So instead, your
nitroso-bacteria group
essentially converts
it to nitrite,
an important step because
fish are a lot more tolerant
to nitrite, and some plants
don't mind taking up nitrite
and they do further conversion
in their roots to nitrate.
But luckily, we have the
nitro-bacteria here as well,
and they complete the conversion
of nitrite to nitrate.
What's beneficial about that?
That's the form of nitrogen
that plants will readily
uptake and automatically
put it into actual growth.
And the other thing is,
is fish are very tolerant
of high nitrate levels.
So if they do build
up in your system
because the plants aren't
taking the nitrates up
fast enough, it doesn't matter.
It's just like water
over the fish's back.
It'll just pass right
by them in the water.
It's not toxic to them, except
at extremely high levels,
which are usually
never achieved.
So always keep that in mind.
If you ever visit an
aquaponics facility,
most of the growers will
show off their fish,
they'll show you
the little ones,
they'll show you the big ones
and they'll say, look at
the growth we're getting.
Then they'll show you the
plants and they'll say,
do you want to try
some and taste it?
Now you know the secret,
walk up to them and say, yeah,
that's all well and good,
but show me the real
stars of the system.
Show me the bacteria.
They'll probably either
look at you very funny
or kick you out.
(laughs)
But they'll immediately know,
you know a lot about
aquaponics at that point,
because that's really
the star of the system.
Without their conversion,
the whole system of fish
and plants doesn't work.
And that basically
brings full circle,
this aquaponics cycle.
It's a symbiotic
relationship, as you now know,
between fish, microorganisms
and plants.
Each one of them feeding
off of the next one
and replenishing the water
in the system.
The other aspect about it,
and I've heard so many
talks by different
aquaponics scientists,
is they said,
aquaculture has some drawbacks.
Especially if you talk
about recycling aquaculture.
Well, why is that?
We just covered it.
Fish produce ammonia,
which is toxic to them.
So aquaculture spends an
enormous amount of time
either mechanically or
chemically trying to get ammonia
out of the system.
And it's a tough thing to do.
On the hydroponics side,
the negative part is, is
you're totally dependent
upon industrialized or
mined minerals and nutrients
to put into your system.
If the shipment comes late,
or if the price goes up,
it impacts your
hydroponic system.
But if you take the
best of those worlds,
the fish and the plants,
put them together
with the bacteria,
all of a sudden,
everything seems to hit this
symbiosis or equilibrium.
The fish are producing
the minerals,
the minerals are
converted by the bacteria,
the plants absorb the minerals,
and the water goes right
back to the fish.
And most aquaculturists,
most aquaponic growers
will look at you and you'll say,
well how is that possible?
And they said, I don't know,
it just happens.
It's amazing how the
three of these organisms,
or group of organisms,
relate to one another
and help each other out.
I put together a
little slide here,
and these are some
of the answers
I've heard these experts say.
They've said, why
does it work?
As a scientist, you can't
just sit there and say,
wow that sounds great, it's
a symbiotic relationship,
let's all watch
them sing Kumbaya,
and everybody will grow nicely.
But scientists say, but
why does it work.
Well, one of the things
is, is that you get this
optimal ratio between the
fish and the plants.
It's based upon that
nutrient uptake.
I put this little table
together over here
because as a scientist, I
want to know the answers
to why it works.
What I did was, is I took a
label off of a bag of fish food.
And those are the
ingredients that they listed
on that label.
And then I picked out
my book on plant growth
and horticulture,
and I put down a list
of all the minerals and
nutrients that a plant
needs to grow.
Just take a look at that list.
All the same, until you get
down to this level right here.
Now one of them I
highlighted on the bottom,
that is plants need nitrogen
while fish waste contains
protein, protein is
made up of nitrogen,
so the plants are
getting the nitrogen.
So it's really this
little group here.
The plants are not getting
all the boron, molybdenum
and sulphur that they
could possibly want
that you would have to monitor.
Well, the nice thing is, is
those three have asterisks
because they're
micro-nutrients for plants.
In other words, they need
trace quantities.
And it actually turns out
that there may be a chance
that the water you're
putting into the system,
say, from a well, already
contains trace quantities
of these micro-nutrients.
So there have been very
little studies or reports
that have come out that have
said aquaponics didn't work
because my boron or
molybdenum was too low.
Most people find it
actually finds its way
into the system.
There have been a
couple that have said
you may have to supplement
just little trace quantities
of sulphur into the system,
but it really depends
upon what fish you're
growing since the source
is the fish food for
these nutrients.
This is tilapia food,
there are some fish foods
that have a little
bit of sulphur in them
so they may be
getting it anyhow.
And if you're wondering, the
cobalt, selenium and iodine,
those are trace elements
in fish food anyhow,
so they're not accumulating
within the system.
The plants aren't using
them, and they probably,
through evaporation, through
cleaning of the system,
you'll probably flush
them out anyhow.
So that's one aspect of it.
Again, what they find is,
is that for aquaponics
to work efficiently, you
have to feed about 60
to 100 grams of
fish food per day
to a square meter of
plants that you're growing
within the system.
Turns out that if you
compare that to aquaculture,
that's actually a
really low feeding rate.
So technically, you
can underfeed your fish
in an aquaponics system
and still get abundant
plant growth.
Now I'm not saying
you should do that
because you probably also
want to harvest your fish
after a while.
So you're probably feeding
the fish all they need,
and the plants are actually
getting an abundance
of nutrients that they need.
But that right
balance as I mentioned
is really based upon
a couple of things.
The types of fish
that you're growing,
the plant growth
platform, whether it
was the nutrient film,
the media-based or the raft,
as well as the type of plant.
Some plants such as
your flowering plants
won't actually set fruit
unless they have higher
or elevated levels of
nitrate in the system.
So you may actually have to
increase your fish feeding
to get that spike in nitrate
and then your flowering
plants will suddenly start
to grow their fruits on them.
And then it also depends on
your chemical composition
of the water.
Again, where are you getting
your water source from?
Does it have boron, molybdenum
or suplhur already in it,
So it's always good to get
a water chemistry test done
of your well water to figure out
what all the compounds are
that are inside of it.
And again, the study we're
doing now with those walleye,
to me, is going to be
an intriguing study.
Because tilapia are more
kind of like the herbivores,
but walleye are
obviously carnivores.
Therefore, what's in their
diet or in their fish food
is dramatically different
between the two of them.
I wish I could stand
here and show you,
now here's the results,
but our walleye are now
four months old.
And I told you they have
to grow 10 to 12 months,
and we've been harvesting
plants out of the system
at actually the same
rate as the tilapia.
So it appears the plants
are getting what they need,
but we're kind of looking
to see if their nutrient
composition is a
little different.
You'll just have
stay tuned for that,
we still got at least
another six months
before we've got the results
from that to share with you.
And then the other
part I mentioned is,
is that it allows for
year-round farming.
And that shouldn't be ignored.
If you're living
down, say, in Florida,
they already do year-round
agricultural production
down there.
But as I said, how
nice would it be
to walk into a greenhouse
in the middle of January
or February in Wisconsin
and hand-pick your fresh,
well, I shy away from
picking cucumbers,
but your hand-picked
tomatoes or your corn
or your peppers that
are growing right there
in the middle of February
in this tropical environment
in the middle of Wisconsin?
So it has a lot
of potential there
to get people back to
eating their fresh fruits
and vegetables in
the middle of winter,
that were grown right next door.
And again, I don't want to
make it sound like aquaponics
is the savior of all.
Aquaponics is a compromise.
Again, putting the
major players up there.
Consider their tolerances.
As I mentioned, the fish are
between 60 to 80 degrees.
There's also pH, they
like seven to eight.
If we look at plants,
most plants like 60 to 80.
Hey, there's a good
match-up right there.
On the other hand, plants
actually prefer a pH
that's a little
acidic, fish don't.
Uh oh, they're not directly
on par with one another.
Well, don't forget these
guys, the beneficial bacteria,
you're farming them as well.
And what you see is, is there
were two different groups
of bacteria, one doing
the ammonia to nitrite,
another doing the
nitrite to nitrate.
Well, the nitrous ammonus
is pretty good, 68 to 86
and 7.8 to eight.
That matches up
well with the fish.
But those nitrobacter converting
the nitrite to nitrate,
they're heat lovers.
They really want that system
running at a much
higher temperature.
And as you can see, their
pH is pretty neutral.
So if you really look at
all three of those crops
you're raising, you have
to have to pick something
to set your
aquaponics system at.
I mean, what temperature
do you want it at?
What pH do you
want the water at?
Turns out that what most
aquaponics operates at
is a compromise.
It's about 70 to 80
degrees Fahrenheit
and about a pH of
seven or neutral.
What does it mean?
Well, it means you
can do aquaponics.
You can grow fish,
plants and bacteria.
But you're probably
not going to grow them
at the fastest rate
possible.
You have to set
your expectations
right where they
need to be, which is,
I'll get great growth, I
won't get super great growth
out of my system, because
everything is being compromised
a little bit.
And that's something
to keep in mind.
As I said, it's not the
answer to all the problems,
but it is one of the
potential solutions.
Another question, and I
actually was asked this,
this morning on the radio,
and that is somebody
said to me, well,
but who's doing aquaponics?
Is this just for that person
who wants something set up
in their garage?
Or is this an
industrial complex?
Well, my answer is, is that
aquaponics is scalable.
I suggest anybody
getting into it,
gets into it on a small scale.
Set up your own home
or hobby system,
in your backyard
or in your garage,
and have some fun with it.
Try the fish and the
plants and try to match up
what you'd like to grow and
what is a good compromise.
Most people get
into it that way.
And what they find is, is
they're suddenly raising
a lot more vegetables
than they can eat.
So that takes it to the
next one and they say,
well, if I'm doing that, I
might as well start selling
some of it.
So they go to the Farmer's
Market, a nice local market,
where they can sell
all their crops.
The next thing you know,
their system has outgrown
their little shed and it's
sticking now into their lawn.
And now they're into a
slightly larger size system.
They also look at that and say,
well, a lot of people
stop by and want to see
what it is I'm doing.
So now we get into the social
and community aquaponics.
One of the more famous
ones is right here,
it's Growing Power in Milwaukee.
They get people in
their own neighborhoods
to grow their own food, to
get a job at the location,
and see that their
food is actually coming
from just down the block.
Well, now you got all
the neighbors involved,
and they're all interested
and you're starting
to build up a staff.
So now you got a commercial
food production at that point
and you start getting all
these fish tanks set up
and you start setting
up hundreds of feet
of plant production.
And what you find is,
is that all these people
that were interested,
the Farmer's Market you
started selling it at,
suddenly, people are
knocking down your door.
They're ringing the doorbell,
they're sending the email
saying, but I want more.
So you've increased the
size of your production.
But as I said before,
it's scalable.
Keep in mind, it was
one fish tank there,
and now there's five
fish tanks there.
That's really all you're doing.
You're adding in
another fish tank.
You're adding into
another raft system.
And then another fish tank,
and another raft.
So you can watch
the system grow,
as well as all the products
that are coming out of it.
As well as your business.
So as most businesses,
start small
and then watch the
system actually grow.
There are places
now which I've seen
in which they've got 20 tanks.
And they've got over
an acre to two acres
of these raft systems set up.
So they're really
growing in size.
A lot of it depends, of course,
do you have the consumers
to buy all that?
And then of course,
the other ones here,
and that is education.
The last time I counted,
which was the beginning
of the summer, there were
63 high schools in Wisconsin
that had aquaponics systems
in the schools.
And it keeps growing.
I mean, we're helping a
lot of them set them up,
and it's like another
one or two a week.
Why is that?
I'll go into a little
more detail in a minute,
but the students
find it fascinating.
And they're learning
about biology.
They're learning about
the environment.
So it's a great
teaching tool as well.
And then, of course, the
other is the research,
such as the Aquaponics
Innovation Center,
which I'll show you in a minute.
But I just love this
photo right here,
and that is is we had a 4K class
come to the Aquaponics
Innovation Center,
and the kids basically all,
immediately, as soon they
leaned in and they saw the fish
swimming by, you could
just see their faces
and you're like,
oh, they're hooked.
They're going home tonight
and whether it's fish sticks
or whether they're
going to have real fish,
those kids are going
to eat fish tonight,
and hey, maybe we just had
them eat their vegetables
for the first time as well.
They just get excited about it.
Many of them want to come
back with their parents
and see it all over again.
A lot of those kids in 4K
go into elementary school,
go to the high school,
they have a system,
and then we start to see them
at the university afterwards.
It's amazing how it just
has this appeal to it,
this fascinating appeal
that you're watching
living things grow, and
you're growing them.
And everybody just seems
to look at that and say
I could do that as well.
I wanted to put this up here,
because that is a big question.
Who is doing aquaponics?
Well, unfortunately, there
has only been one survey done
on aquaponics that I'm aware of
over the past 20 years.
It was published
in 2015 this year
and they basically sent
out an email survey
and said, tell us what is
the size of your system?
How long have you
been in business?
And what are you producing?
And you can see this
here, and that is, is that
these are the years that
these respondents said
they started doing aquaponics.
I find it remarkable.
It really only started a
count five years ago.
Before that, very few
people were doing it.
And all of a sudden, growth of
aquaponics and who's doing it
started to skyrocket.
But it also shows you most
of the people doing it
have only been doing it
for five years or less.
So if it's something
you're considering,
you're in good company.
There's nobody out there that
has vast years of experience
unless you consider
five years vast.
The other they want to know
is how large is your systems?
And you can see there's
a large range here.
But if you look at the
system volume, most of these
on this end are the
home or hobby systems.
These are like the
Farmer's Market.
It's just some people
now, the brave ones,
venturing out into
commercial aquaponics.
So the industry is
just starting to grow.
But it had to gain its
momentum to launch it
to get these larger
systems to start to show up
as people make it more and
more scalable or upscale it.
The other part of the survey,
I kind of take this, take
it with a grain of salt,
if you would, and that was,
is remember what I said,
it was an email survey.
How many of those
do you get a day?
(laughs)
So they even admitted,
they sent out the survey
across all email lists,
and they received 800
replies in three months,
and that's what they
based the results on.
Most certainly, it
underestimates the size
of the aquaponics industry
or individuals in the U.S.
because like most of us,
we'd probably just delete it
if the email came in.
But I look at it and that
is, they got 800 responses
in three months using
a very faulty system
for collecting data.
That's pretty remarkable
to begin with.
And you can see, they're
scattered everywhere.
And then they went
global with it,
and they basically
asked a simple question,
and that is, is do you
do aquaponics or not?
And they got responses from
a large portion of the world.
Again, it's a faulty
study because who knows?
In half of these countries,
the email could have been
blocked or just never got
out to any of the people
that were in it.
But again, as you start
to see these dots,
and as the dots get larger,
it starts to show you there's
some momentum building here.
More and more people are
getting into aquaponics
and are starting to use it.
And I think you'd be surprised
if you start looking around
where they start popping
up, even right here
in Stevens Point.
Now, again, we come
back to that question,
well, in order for aquaponics
to be a sustainable
food production system, it's
going to have to compete
with traditional agriculture.
To do that, it's
going to have to meet
some socio-economic challenges
that are out there.
It can meet a lot of them.
We talked about this already.
Mineral recycling.
That is what
aquaponics is about.
The fish put the nutrients
in, the bacteria convert it,
the plants use it, and
the cycle begins again.
Consider traditional
agriculture,
consider hydroponics.
It's a matter of mining
or creating the minerals,
dumping them in and then
going back and doing it
over and over again to get
those crops to be produced.
It's not a recycling system.
We already talked about water.
Water is going to
become more and more
the world's scarcest resource.
This is a system here in
which aquaponics only uses
10% of the water that
traditional agriculture uses.
Why?
Because it's recycled.
Traditional agriculture
sprays it on a field.
I once had a person say to
me, yeah, but it finds its way
into the well, and it's
pumped back up again.
But do you really know the rate
at which it takes for water
to get from a plant, back
to the aquifer and back up?
It's measured in years
or decades.
So it's a recycled system,
but it's a really slow
recycle system.
What is the turnover
in aquaponics?
You get two complete
cycles in one hour.
So that's a lot faster
than say, 10 to 15 years.
Energy efficiency?
Aquaponics is kind of
leading the way again.
You know, like I said, more
and more people are doing it
in green houses.
They're using solar heat.
They're using solar panels
to produce the electricity
that they need to
run the systems.
We discussed over-fishing.
More and more of your fish
is going to come from farms,
which farm would you
like it to come from?
The one next door to you,
where they have an
aquaponics system,
or the one over in China where
it's being raised somehow,
imported here and not inspected,
and winding up on your plate.
As I mentioned
before, it's scalable,
but you can put aquaponics
everywhere.
Some people I think
sell it a little short
and they say, well urban
aquaponics is just the future,
that's the only one
that's going to matter.
Urban aquaponics is tricky.
Most cities are not
zoned for agriculture.
And therefore, you've got to
go through a lot of permits
and regulations.
The other is, is where
are you going to put it?
If you have a vacant lot
or the top of a building,
that's probably a good location.
But a lot of people are
trying to shove them
into warehouses or
condemned buildings.
There's potential there, but
I haven't seen any of them
succeed on a high level
because now you've got
to heat the building
and now you have to provide
the sunlight.
And you do so through
lighting.
That all costs money, and
now you've got to make sure
you're still producing those
crops at a profitable level.
So I think when you look
at more of the peri-urban
or more of the rural areas,
I think this is where you're
going to see the greatest
aquaponics growth right now.
Now when I say rural, I don't
mean 100 miles from here.
I'm talking about just
get outside the suburbs
and plant it right there.
You're still within 50
miles of your consumers.
I think that's where
there's a lot of potential.
Or, in the suburbs themselves,
where some areas are zoned both
residential and agricultural
and you can actually put
these facilities.
And then the other
challenges is, is that
as more people want
to get into it,
they have to learn
about it.
And as I've said before,
what you have to know about
is aquaculture, you have
to know about hydroponics,
and you know how they work
together with aquaponics.
And that can be a
little challenging.
I just saw a survey that
surveyed the Midwestern U.S.
and then said there are a
total of three universities
in the Midwestern U.S.
teaching aquaculture.
Keep in mind, Stevens Point
is one of them.
But that's it, three.
How many universities
are teaching aquaponics?
Well, as of last year, one.
Stevens Point was it.
Now there's three that are out
there that are teaching it.
So there's a limited
supply of courses out there
and programs right now to
get into to learn about it.
You just happen to be
sitting right next door
to a university that's
ahead of the curve there.
And speaking ahead of the curve,
I've got to put a little
plug in for this as well,
and that was I
mentioned in April.
UW-Stevens Point launched the
Aquaponics Innovation Center.
And Chris Cirmo
mentioned it was paid for
by a UW System economic
development incentive grant
for $700,000.
It's built at the Nelson
and Pade facility,
which is in Montello, Wisconsin,
one hour south of here,
but it was actually a
really great opportunity
for the university.
Our facility is this
one here that you see
with the blue tanks.
Their demonstration system
is on the other side.
Nelson & Pade is one
of the world leaders
in aquaponics system
design, engineering
and system-building.
So they use this as a
showroom for their systems.
Well, we wanted to use
their systems as part
of our Innovation Center,
and I couldn't think
of a better place to build
our Innovation Center
than next door to the
manufacturer.
Think about everything,
something you have that breaks.
Wouldn't you like to
have lived next door
to the manufacturer of it, so
at least you can go over there
and complain?
So we're located right there,
and this is open to the
public so they can come in.
And as you can see, what
we have are six replicate
commercial aquaponics systems.
This allows us to do a lot
of side-by-side comparisons
of the different
crops, fish, plants,
different systems, different
temperatures, anything we want.
Because it's all located
inside of a green house,
we can set the environment
and test its parameters.
What we use the facility for?
We use it a lot for teaching.
A lot for student research.
We have educational
opportunities.
We invite people in to come
talk with us, share ideas.
The nice thing about
research centers is,
is that we can try
things, and we can fail.
And that's results.
Whereas a business
does it and fails,
they're out of business.
So we can help the
industry in that case.
We can help commercialize
the discoveries.
Maybe you have a new idea.
A twist on some idea.
We can help you test it to see
if it's worth then patenting
or promoting it.
As we put it, what we're
there for is, is that we serve
the economic development of
a blue-green industry.
And we're hoping to see
it grow more and more
throughout the
state of Wisconsin.
Well, what are the
results from this?
Well, as I said, we work
with a lot of partners.
We've got dozens of businesses,
current, future businesses
that want to try different
species, try different systems.
We're also, as I mentioned,
one of the sources
of education.
I mentioned the aquaponics
course that we teach here
at the university.
We've taught it for four years.
The first year, we
got 20 of the bravest,
most courageous
students who said,
I'm going to try the U.S.'s
first aquaponics course,
and see where it goes.
And we had bumps and bruises,
but we all made it through it.
That was the first year.
This last year, we had 74
students take the course.
They came from, I
think it was 24 states
and seven foreign countries.
So they're basically coming
here to Central Wisconsin
to learn aquaponics.
Like I said, research
and innovation.
There are two parts of the
course that I absolutely love,
and that is we
make every student
create their
aquaponics business.
They can't graduate until
they actually put out there
the blueprints for their
aquaponics business.
And then everybody sits around,
they criticize and
they critique them
and they compliment them.
And they say that's
either a good idea
or a go back to
the drawing board.
What I find amazing is,
is we've taught the course
for four years, and I know
at least seven students
who have gone on to launch
their aquaponic business.
When they send me a note saying,
here it is, I launched it,
it's the same name as the
poster board they put up
in front of the class.
(laughs)
So they're thinking.
They're thinking really well.
All of this, as I said, is
part of a localvore movement.
People want more and more
to know where their food
is coming from.
And they want to know what
has happened to it.
And aquaponics is a way
of achieving that.
There's less fossil
fuel needed to deliver
aquaponics products because
most of these aquaponics farms
are located right next
to their customers.
Also, as I said, aquaponics
uses less than 10%
of the water as traditional
agriculture does.
Purchasing from your local
farm keeps the dollars
closer and invests into
the local economy.
We see economic
boons there as well.
And I said, its an
innovative, sustainable
production system.
Innovative is the key there.
People want to
see these systems.
Most aquaponics growers,
once they get to, say,
the Farmer's Market model,
or move to more
of the commercial,
they not only produce the crops,
but they have a side
business which is tours.
And they charge for those tours.
And people come in
there, $10 a person,
to spend an hour wandering
around, watching plants grow,
and watching fish swim.
(laughs)
The basics, but they do it.
In many cases, here's
our Lieutenant Governor.
She heard about the Aquaponic
Innovation Center and said,
"What is it?"
Well, we invited her
there to come and see it.
She spent over three hours
there wandering around
looking at it, and she
said, "I'm fascinated."
I said to her, I hear
that from everybody
who comes through here.
It's a fascinating process to
actually see your food grow.
Now the other thing they ask is,
is well, what does the
future look like.
It's only going to be good
if a commercial industry
is launched.
Well, I think we're at
the forefront of that.
And that is, is that it's
a small but a rapidly
growing industry.
As I said, more and more
people are getting into it.
Why?
These are kind of like the
main reasons they tell us.
Food security is number one.
Where does my food come from?
Number two, locally grown.
That has a lot of
weight to it nowadays
when it comes to
what food you eat.
And the other is, is
that they're running
out of fresh water
or running out of agricultural
land to grow these crops in.
What do we know?
When we talk to people who
run aquaponics businesses
and we say, are you hiring?
Almost every one
of them says yes.
And we say, well,
who are you hiring?
And I love this
expression, and they said,
we need college-trained
students who have taken
aquaponics courses and know
the science behind aquaponics.
Because they said right now,
the industry is an industry
driven by enthusiasm more
than knowledge.
And I see that a lot.
People jump into it thinking,
well, that sounded great,
I'm going to do it,
but they have no idea
how many hours in day
does a fish need light?
Do plants need light
24 hours a day?
Or is it less than that?
They don't know the basics.
So they're asking
us, they're saying,
we basically have
employment opportunities,
we need people to
run these systems.
We've built them, but we
don't know how to run them.
And therefore there are
investors that are out there,
and we have students now who
are interested in taking on
aquaponics as a career.
They want to run
those facilities.
As I said, the need for
the industry as well,
is we need to
explore other crops.
Tilapia are good, I actually
recommend to people,
start with tilapia.
When they smile at you,
when there's no
oxygen in the water,
and they're flopping
on a dry pan,
they're a good
fish to start with.
But once you've mastered
that, then start diversifying.
See what else is out there.
Because unfortunately,
for the tilapia,
your main competition is some
farmer over in China.
It's not somebody right
in your neighborhood.
Now I don't want to paint
the rosiest picture and say
we should all leave
here right now
and launch aquaponics
businesses.
There are tremendous
challenges out there
for any new or innovative
agricultural industry.
The number one item up there,
which most people
would agree with is,
there is no long-term
economic data for aquaponics.
If you looked at that survey,
most people got into it
less than five years ago.
So will there be a
business in 10 years?
I don't know the answer to that.
Will you be making a
profit in seven years?
I don't know the
answer to that.
We need more of
that economic data,
but it's only going to
come as more of these farms
come online and we
start to analyze it.
All right?
The other is, is that
aquaponics does need or require
a multi-disciplinary
approach.
Being at the university, I
constantly here about STEM.
STEM, STEM, Science, technology,
engineering, and math.
They're almost there.
The true word is STEAM.
They're missing it.
It's science,
technology, engineering,
agriculture and math.
Now you've developed a crop
that people will pay for.
I don't know what they're
paying for in the technology,
science and math areas,
but now they're buying
something that they can eat.
And you need to apply it.
Aquaponics needs fish
and plant biology.
It needs microbiology.
It needs engineering,
computer science, economics,
financing, marketing.
You need a background obviously
in all of these things,
or you need to hire people
who do have those backgrounds.
As I mentioned before,
there's a gap of knowledge
in aquaponics for that
fish-plant coupling system.
I had somebody at the start
of this lecture say to me,
I really want to grow salmon.
And I said, great,
it's a cold-water fish,
known for the Arctic waters.
What vegetables do
they grow there.
You've got to find
a plant that grows
at freezing temperatures.
So you've got to match
that coupling of the fish
and the plants.
Pick your fish, but pick
your plants at the same time.
They both need the
same temperature.
If you can't match
them together,
you've got to try again.
And then as I said here,
the nice thing is, is that
it's a recycling system.
So we're replenishing the
water that's in there.
We're cleaning out those
waste and turning them
into usable resources.
And that has to be
incorporated more and more
into aquaponics.
When I hear people say,
well I do aquaponics,
but it's a flow through.
I question them and say, I'm
not sure that's aquaponics.
That means the water goes in
one end, and come out the other
and is discharged into
your waste stream.
I said, it's got to recycle.
That's aquaponics.
And people have to look
at it in that manner.
So that's kind of an
overview of aquaponics.
And again, kind of my
take on a sustainable
food production system.
And hopefully, it gives you a
little bit more information,
and like I said, get
a chance if you can.
Get out there and see
some aquaponics systems.
Stop by the university's
Aquaponics Innovation Center.
We'd love to show you around.
And like I said,
take a look at it.
It's really important
for you to know
where is my food coming from.
How safe is it?
And is it right
around the corner?
All right?
So, thank you very much.
(applause)