Western Dakota Tech Grads Seek Solution To Food Deserts

May 24, 2018  |  By JOHN CONWAY

RAPID CITY, S.D. 

Food deserts in Rapid City are nothing new, but they were back in the headlines last year when three full-service grocery stores announced they were closing their doors.

Now, a group of young engineers and entrepreneurs think they have found a cost-effective solution to the problem. And they're finding it right here in Rapid City.

The closure of Prairie Market and two Family Thrift grocery stores in October greatly expanded the food deserts of Rapid City. Food deserts are places where people do not have reasonably convenient access to full-service grocery stores that sell a variety of nutritious food options.

In the absence of full-service grocery stores, convenience stores - which are abundant in these areas – have become a primary food source for the local residents. Mary Corbine, food security manager with Feeding South Dakota, says this situation is far from ideal.

"Convenience stores just don't have access to all the nutrition that a person needs, and they tend to be more expensive," Corbine said. "So, therefore, they're utilizing [more of] people's resources."

And without that balanced nutrition, people in food deserts tend to have higher rates of preventable disease.

"If you are eating higher calorie foods, [processed foods] and higher sugary foods, you probably will have more obesity, more heart disease and also more diabetes due to increased weight," said Cindy Gates, a clinical dietitian at Regional Health Rapid City Hospital.

The problem caught the attention of electrical trades students at Western Dakota Technical Institute (WDT). They are using their skills to develop a new system to help provide healthy food options to the residents of food deserts all year.

"The great thing with our system is that we can set it down there within the communities,” said Nick Smith, a member of the WDT aquaponics team. “Therefore, we eliminate the transportation costs of getting food to them."

Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. An aquaponics system raises fish and uses the fish excrement to feed plants. An aquaponics system produces not just fresh fish, but also fresh fruits and vegetables more effectively than traditional agriculture. The system can grow produce anywhere in the world, year-round.

"The yield first would be much greater than a normal garden, like a community garden,” Smith said. “We can grow plants twice as fast and produce about three times as much as a normal garden."

Aquaponics isn't new, but it has required a lot of human labor to operate and maintain the filters and pumps and monitor things like water levels. The WDT aquaponics team is working to automate the system, requiring less human input.

"We pretty much train the computer to do [the work] for them,” Smith said. “The computer takes care of all that, and all they have to do is come in and harvest [the produce]."

The system, if successful, will also recycle its own water and bring year-round fresh food to not only food deserts, but actual deserts where water is scarce, reducing the cost of nutritious food options.

"The only water input we have is when we initially build it,” said Joseph Cattin, another member of the WDT aquaponics team. “After that, it should be totally off the grid and not need any other input."

The team also hopes to eventually develop a solar power source for the system, allowing it to be installed in areas without access to electricity, making the system entirely self-sustaining.

The team’s work on the aquaponics technology has won them a spot as a finalist in the National Science Foundation Community College Innovation Challenge. They will travel to Alexandria, Va. in June to present their project to industry and members of Congress.