Future of Food Is Fishy

Darren Handschuh - March 29, 2019

It's a marriage made in heaven.

One that produces food faster and uses far fewer resources than traditional growing methods – and it is happening right here in the Okanagan.

With the right equipment, aquaponics can be done just about anywhere.

“Aquaponics is the perfect marriage of hydroponics and aquaculture,” says Jeff Smith with the Aquaponics Training Institute in Vernon. “Aquaculture is the raising of aquatic species in a closed system, and hydroponics is a soilless growing of plants within a closed system.”

Put the two together, and you get a method of producing food that leaves almost no environmental footprint.

Smith will be hosting information sessions and workshops to teach people how to set up their own systems.

Information sessions will be held this Saturday, from 9 a.m. until noon, and then again on April 6.

From there, people can sign up for workshops on how to build their own system.

“That's a full hands on, face-to-face workshop here in our facility, so they will get to learn all about aquaponics,” said ATI's Barbara Bonnough.

“The workshops are geared toward people who want to run their own facility in their own home, up to someone who might want to do it in an outdoor greenhouse and set up an aquaponics facility that would feed a community.”

More information can be found at the Aquaponics Training Institute website.