Moffat CAN launches its Scotland-first aquaponics systemENVIRONMENTAL charity Moffat CAN launched Scotland’s first aquaponics food growing system.
And 500 people flooded to the Old Church Depot at Annanside on Saturday to celebrate the environmental project’s opening and see how it works.
Moffat CAN have transformed the depot from a derelict building into an exciting community project which has created 16 jobs and is training local unemployed people.
The project includes the creation of a community market garden and allotment spaces for 25 families; operating a doorstep recycling service covering Upper Annandale; and installing a mix of small scale renewables to ensure the building produces its own power. The group’s vans which collect recyclable materials even runs on used chip fat.
Visitors were given the chance to feed the fish and see how the system works.
The aquaponics system combines growing fish and plants in such a way that the waste material from the fish becomes the nutrient source for the vegetation.
The plants then use the nutrients, cleaning the water before it is returned clean to the fish.
The fish can be fed with worms and greens from a compost heap, leading to a low input food system.
There was also an Easter egg hunt and a children’s competition, and a tree planting.
Chris Ballance of CAN said: “This is using modern technology to recreate a food system first used by the Aztecs.
“It minimises the amount of energy used in food production and has potential to be used in both small-scale and large-scale applications. It’s exciting to have been able to create the first such system in Scotland.”
The aquaponics greenhouse is being funded by LEADER and the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund.
Chairman of Moffat CAN, Alis Ballance, said: “It was a fantastic day and we were pleased to see so many people visit. It is a project for the community. It has been a vision for a number of years and at the open day we want to show what is being achieved. It has been a real team effort to bring it all together.”