Occassionally, I get to combine two things I enjoy and care strongly for.   Today is one of those days!  I came across a very interesting website while browsing the web called Portable Farms.  Basically, it’s a commercial site selling these mini-greenhouses made for growing plants, flowers, vegetables, and even fish!  I was especially interested in this idea as I am an avid aquarium hobbyist and have done my own breeding of tropical fish.

So the whole idea here is obviously reduce our dependence on food sources that are heavily processed, travel far and wide, and use significant amounts of energy to end up in your stomach (or garbage can – didn’t your mother ever tell you that there are starving children in Africa?).  Now, I’m not a vegetarian and regular gardening can only get me so far; I need a little meat in my diet!

Add Tilapia to the mix now!  It’s not my favorite fish in the sea but it is versatile, you can do a lot of different things with this light, white fish.

They call it “Aquaponics” and focus on creating a closed system that fosters both the growth of plants and fish (much like a planted aquarium).  Fish waste is siphoned from the tanks into the plants and used as a fertilizer.  The excess water is then drained back into the tanks after having been cleaned and reoxygenated.  As they describe it:

Aquaponics is the growing of fish, or other water-based animals, along with land plants in a controlled environment, to maximize the use of the energy and nutrients in the system in order to harvest the greatest amount of vegetables and fish protein from the system.

At the very least, I think the Portable Farms site is worth checking out, if not just to get you thinking about how you can grow more of the things you use and eat every day.

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