October 23, 2018 — Years ago I helped a friend of a friend with a backyard aquaponics system – in which plants are grown in water rather than soil and fish live in the water. I was entranced.
It seemed almost magical, with the poop from the fish feeding the plants to create both vegetables and animal protein in one small space. I figured such systems would soon start replacing gardens among the geekier subsets of the back-to-the-land crowd, becoming a real part of the local food movement.
Nope.
I’m not sure what happened to the system I saw, but I know that aquaponics has never caught on even though the related field of aquaculture, which grows fish or shellfish without the plants, is doing pretty well.
A new project at UNH wants to change that, and maybe turn this fish-and-veggies idea into something that can support a real business in New England.
How? They’re going to science the heck out of it.
“I’m here as a fancy plumber,” said Todd Guerdat, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering, who is leading the project at UNH’s Kingman Research Farm in Madbury. He said seven graduate students are involved in the research at the moment: “They’re the facility managers, they understand the biology, physics, engineering, physiology, and all the other factors that go into it.”
In New Hampshire as in many places, he said, aquaponics systems are built on rules of thumb, at best. If a system fails or if costs go through the roof, it’s not clear why because there’s limited understanding of what’s actually going on with inputs like fish food and outputs like the harvest and the waste.
“The tough part of aquaponics, as opposed to poultry or dairy farming, is that we don’t have nutrient balances established,” Guerdat said. “We don’t have a functional model that says: this is how you can do it … and make money. Send your kids to college.”