Symbiorganics: Hyperlocal, Smart Aquaponic Food Production
Symbiorganics is the proposed name of the idea, but its concept is actually rooted in a farming method that dates back to the Aztecs, called "aquaponics." Aquaponics is the production of fresh produce (and/or fish) through a mutually beneficial relationship between the fish and plants. By itself, the excreted waste from the fish would build up over time to a toxic level and eventually kill them. However, by adding the plants into the equation, the excretions are circulated up to the plants, which naturally purify the water and return it back to the fish. The plants benefit from this relationship through the help of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which converts the fish excrements into nitrates and nitrites, nutrients the plant can use to grow. The only input into the system is the food for the fish, and very occasionally, some water to offset the evaporation. This method of growing food is considerably more efficient an sustainable than the current method of food production, as it uses 2% of the water than the conventional methods of organic farming for the same vegetable farming. As the plants are not having to dig their roots into any hard soil for nutrients, the plants can focus more energy on the production of the valuable head. It’s also 100% organic, as there is no use for any fertilizers or chemicals to promote growth. Using aquaponics, many vegetables can grow in half the time to mature. For example, lettuce can mature in 30 days, where it would have taken 60+ days to mature in soil. It’s totally feasible to grow beans, basil, thyme, baby greens, oregano, mint, parsley, and spinach using these methods. One of the major preconceptions about aquaponics is that it takes a lot of hard labour to maintain. This is totally not true, as there is no requirement for weeding, and there is no need for watering either. There is also no need to worry about any soil pests! My proposed idea Symbiorganics is a smarter, automated aquaponics. Using Raspberry Pis, I will use sensors to collect pH, temperature, and overall water quality to ensure that the fish and plants are at optimal growing conditions. There will also be sensors for the pumps and the movement of water, CO2 levels, environmental lighting/humidity, leak detection, and a variety of other crucial parameters which have to be met. The feeding of the fish can also be automated. The Raspberry Pi will collect all of this information and adjust the conditions accordingly, notifying the user of the changes afterwards. Aside from the use of the Raspberry Pis to serve as sensors, I want to make urban farming a social endeavor, setting up the web community around the product to share updates and best practices. A small webcam can be embedded into the hardware to take pictures of the plant’s growth stages, and this can be made into an album for people to see and share what other people are growing, and how they are growing it. All the steps of how our food is grown, stored, processed, and transported can all contribute differently to climate change and the environment. The amount of food miles on the produce that we consume can be nulled by growing our food in our kitchen or even bedrooms. The vision of Symbiorganics is to augment our food purchases, providing families with free organics. The hardware required to grow the plants and fish will be relatively portable, large enough to provide one family with enough produce to occasionally pick off of and eat, yet small enough to be moved without significant strain or disassembly. The technology that is used to monitor the water levels and environmental parameters will be completely built into the growing tanks, and waterproofed. I envision an LCD built into the hardware as well, with user-friendly interface for the grower to see exactly what is happening and control everything in real time. It may seem somewhat unfathomable and maybe even unreasonable to have an LCD attached to hardware that is used to grow plants, but in order to make it appealing to the current public in any way, it needs to be technologically appealing. The design of the hardware must be modern and aesthetically pleasing enough to place in your home without becoming an eyesore. The plastics used to build the hardware will of course be post-recycled. (TL;DR) In summary, Symbiorganics has three parts to it: 1. The smart automation to make growing produce using aquaponics as simple and pain-free as possible. 2. A web community that shares the progress of each grower and allows for the up-voting of best practices in maintaining an aquaponics environment. 3. A hardware that is designed to appeal to the general public of Toronto, and can be mass-produced as efficiently as possible. The credit for the home aquaponics kit goes to www.backtotheroots.com, their extremely successful Kickstarter (for which the campaign has ended) is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2142509221/home-aquaponics-kit-self-cleaning-fish-tank-that-g. I have no affiliation with Back to the Roots, I am only using the picture to demonstrate a successful version of an aquaponics product, as I believe that it is not a bad thing to emulate success.