A $25,000 grant will help teach Belfast students about agriculture and bring more fresh foods to the school cafeteria.
A grant from the fall 2010 round of Pepsi Refresh Everything Grants helped pay for a new greenhouse at the school, according to industrial arts teacher Tom Larson.
“It is the perfect experiment,” said Hazelton. “It hasn’t cost the taxpayers anything. It provides fresh produce to the school and gives students life lessons in how to grow their own food and it would not have been possible without the Pepsi grant. A $25,000 project to build a greenhouse would have been a difficult sell to the administration in these economic times.”
In the waning days of April students in the Junior/Senior Environmental Science class at Belfast Central School along with their teacher Josh Hazelton and Principal Mike Roche, ILarson and parent volunteer Josh Enders put down the foundation and erected a solar greenhouse. The greenhouse will allow the Aquaponics Program to expand providing more fish and vegetables to be used in the school cafeteria throughout the year. The greenhouse which operates with no gas or utilities will add 1,000 square feet of growing area to the project and allow it the class to provide a wider variety of fresh vegetables during the winter months.
“The greenhouse is made in such a way that it will keep the temperature above freezing and in the 40 to 50-degree range in the winter,” Hazelton said.
Hazelton said he would like to expand the program to his other classes and keep it going throughout the summer by students who will be coming into the program in the fall. He also believes the project can cross curriculums once production expands and expects to be able to donate fresh produce to the local food pantry during the summer months as part of the Community Shared Agriculture Program.
“The students are learning an important life skill. It’s something where kids can take ownership of their own food and learn where its coming from and maybe learn to eat healthier,” he said.
Hazelton started the Aquaponic program six years ago as a demonstration project. The students have grown lettuce and fish each year. With the new system, Hazelton expects to harvest 10 to 15 heads of lettuce a week, and grow about 100 pounds of fish as well as tomatoes peppers and peas and spinach.
The Pepsi Refresh Everything Grant program gives away millions each month to fund ideas which are proposed and accepted to the program in one of four categories — Arts and Music, Education, Communities and the Pepsi Challenge. A total of 60 awards in amounts of $5,000 - $10,000 - $25,000 or $50,000 are given away based on public voting during each of the eight grant rounds per year.
Some green for a greenhouse - Wellsville Daily Reporter
Aquaponics 4 You Scam – My honest opinion
This is a review site. Click here to visit the official “Aquapoincs 4 You” website
It seems like we have come a long way to finally arrive at my concluding review of “Aquaponics 4 You”. My initial goals for this review were specifically to discover if “Aquaponics 4 You” has merit and second to determine if it will provide you and me with enough information to get a good start with an aquaponics system, aka ‘The Ultimate Aquaponics Home System’, as designed by the “Aquaponics 4 You” team. Lets start with what you get for your money, an e-book and video.
The Materials: E- Book
The e-book is 33 pages and is organized in a logical fashion from an introduction to aquaponics through the step-by-step construction of the ‘Ultimate Aquaponics Home System’.
Specifically it covers:
Points to ConsiderGetting Ready to Build the System – Sourcing the Components (Vendor links are provided).Building the SystemAdding Water, Fish and PlantsNitrifying BacteriaTesting and OptimizingMaterials ListThe guide is easy to read and supported by diagrams to get you a clear picture of how your system needs to be setup. It covers all the major points necessary with enough detail to get your system sourced and built. On the downside, you will find a few typos and that some of the information, for example, plants to use; the issue with root plants is not touched on; is a little on the light side. That is why I have included the preliminary information I have. But all in all the information provided gives you a current; copyright is dated 2011; single guide to use for materials list, vendor sourcing and step-by-step construction guide. I did take the time to verify that all the vendor links are working and that those suppliers do carry the exact products the staff at “Aquaponics 4 You” recommend. So, on this level the guide will be a time-saver for newbies.
This is a review site. Click here to visit the official “Aquapoincs 4 You” website
The Materials: Video
The 15 minute video included with your purchase, details the physical setup of the system as well as connection of all required plumbing through the installation of the floating bed material and prep for netted pots.
I enjoyed this video in some ways, but not so much in others. While it does explicitly detail the exact steps needed to build your aquaponics farming system, please use a little more common sense than the author is shown doing in handling tools. Also, the author is shown gluing pvc piping together in the grow bed. I guess it was a handy location at the time. PLEASE don’t do that. The last thing you want is any leftover residue from the pvc primer or cement left in your grow bed. The fish and plants won’t like it. Instead do this work on a seperate workbench or even the garage floor. Remember we are striving for an ‘Organic’ system all around.
Conclusion
“Aquaponics 4 You” is NO SCAM. The system does provide the information, resources and materials lists to build a good starter aquaponics system that you can build. Remember that aquaponics itself, is a proven method to grow plants and is in use by many people the world over. ‘Aquaponics 4 You’ does not muck around with the science behind the aquaponic method, it simply shows you how you can economically assemble and use your very own aquaponics system and removes some of the mystery about what an aquaponics system is and how it works.
I honestly feel that purchasing “Aquaponics 4 You” will help get you started with your own system with less headaches. Used for a single source quide, you will glad that you have it as a reference and it will also prove to be a good foundation to build from.
Additional resources are available online for aquaponics in general. And as funny as it sounds, the “Aquaponics 4 You” website has some additional information as well. Youtube has many good videos detailing aquaponic farms and these are loaded with many tips and suggestions. I wish you the very best in your new hobby and sincerely hope that my review has been of help to you.
This is a review site. Click here to visit the official “Aquapoincs 4 You” website
permaculture Aquaponics productivity, energy use, “sustainability” etc…
Hi all,
I’ve been running aquaponics for some years now and have made a number of observations in comparison to soil based systems and extensive aquaculture (all of which I’m playing with in my small suburban back yard).
Handily, Frank Gapinski came here a week ago with Geoff Lawton to film for their upcoming Urban Pc DVD and Frank has put up a couple of blog entries with graphics, so you can see my setup exactly.
The “traditional” aquaponics system is chronicled here:
http://www.ecofilms.com.au/2011/04/26/pond-aquaponics/
And the extensive system here:
http://www.ecofilms.com.au/2011/04/26/pond-aquaponics/
Comparisons:
I agree that aquaponics can be incredibly productive, as ours was in its first year. But there are many downsides that are not discussed much.
Our growbeds use perlite as the grow media, which I got cheap as a result of a screw-up at a local manufacturer’s. Downside is it floats, so makes flood and drain harder to set up. Upside is it retains moisture, so extended pump failure does not lead to pump failure.
The gardens on the other hand, are no-dig raised beds, using Toby Hemenway’s recipe for sheet mulch from Gaia’s Garden.
Like all aquaponics setups, we have more fish than will survive if they are left to fend for themselves. Therefore, we need to feed the fish. The pellets contain commercial fishing by-catch as well as chicken guts sourced from industrial chicken farms, neither of which could be described in any way as sustainable. I’ve heard of some pellets recently that are made from rape (canola), but am sure this comes from industrial canola farming, so ditto. I haven’t managed to source any of this yet, so don’t know if they’re any good. And I don’t have enough land to grow food for them here…
I have enough surface area to ensure the pond gets enough oxygen that the fish don’t die if the pump fails, but it’s pretty marginal in summer, when the water holds less oxygen. Every backyard aqaponicer I know has had at least one episode of pump failure and mass fish death.
With only a few exceptions, the taste and quality of food grown in soil is superior to that in the aquaponic system. The exceptions are Tuscan kale, which takes on a lovely subtle flavour compared to the stronger tasting soil borne variety and silverbeet (chard), ditto. Most everything else has a more intense flavour out of the garden, and for us, this is desirable for most things we grow.
We’ve found that aquaponically grown plants get big very quickly and seem to have weaker structures as a result. They are then far more susceptible to attack by chewing and sucking insects than the plants grown in soil.
We also have a bacterial wilt that got into the system two years ago that wiped out all the solanaceae. This year we’ve been able to use actively aerated compost tea to outcompete the wilt, but the plants in the growbeds get the wilt harder and faster than those in the garden.
The extensive system:
The pool setup in the link above is fundamentally self-managing. I have a small pump to stop the water at the bottom of the deep end of the pool going anaerobic, as happens in some pool conversions. I only do this because we still swim in the pool and don’t want to stir up smelly muck while doing so. Otherwise, pump failure has zero impact on this system. I added the gravel filter beds just as an extra to help get the water balanced and clean faster. The floating garden beds would be sufficient for this, had I not done the filters. Adding biofilters as in the aquaponics system would get it going properly even faster.
The fish (100 Silver Perch or Barcoo Grunter) are an Australian native and omnivorous. They eat the algae that grows in the pool and any insect attracted to the water. We no longer have any mosquitos in the house through the summer. They were introduced to the pool in October or November last year and were mostly 10mm long. Without any food added (other than bits of bread when we want to show off), the largest are now around 25cm and the smallest are at least 10cm. There is clearly no shortage of food for them.
At this point, we’re only growing aquatic plants with this bunch of fish. The aim was to introduce more veggies as per an aquaponics setup, but this will have to wait for another time, as we’re putting the house on the market so we can attack all these concepts in a more serious manner outside the city.
So, what do I think of aquaponics? In a small space with lots of energy, you can produce a lot of food. Handy if you live in a city. Is it sustainable? About as sustainable as the city in which it is placed – i.e. not at all sustainable. I also have animal cruelty concerns about small tank systems with high stocking rates, as are commonly advocated by tank manufacturers.
Will I use aquaponics when I move to the country? Only as described in the pool to pond article above, with a few veggie beds attached.
Cheers,
Les
permaculture Oregon Ecological Housing and Permaculture Conference: May 10-12
The Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University in collaboration with the State of Oregon Housing and Community Services are hosting a Permaculture conference in Portland, Oregon on May 10-11-12 aimed at State developers of low income housing. All are welcome to attend, and *scholarships are available. *A direct link to conference information and registration can be found here:
Presenters: Toby Hemenway, Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, Mark Lakeman, Andrew Millison, Eli Spevak, Rick Crager, Leonard Barrett. Tours of local Permaculture inspired multi-family residential developments are included.
For more information and to register you may visit the OHCS 2011 Ecological Housing Solutions Permaculture Conference page at:
http://www.ohcs.oregon.gov/OHCS/Permaculture_Conference.shtml
And you may register on-line at OSU:
http://hort.oregonstate.edu/2011OHCSPermacultureConference .
Oregon has a long tradition of being a self-sustaining state that provides its residents with the opportunity to build the communities, homes and lives we desire. Yet, sky-rocketing energy costs, low-quality and inadequate food, and housing instability is threatening this tradition in every town, school and home. Oregon is experiencing poverty, hunger and homelessness at alarming rates, as more and more hard-working people fall on difficult times.
Fortunately, Oregon also has a long tradition of tackling tough problems and finding creative solutions. Permaculture systems maximize existing resources and offer self-sustaining ways for communities to meet their needs. The permaculture design system is a practical approach to helping families reduce energy costs, improve nutrition and access to healthy food, and live in adequate housing.
We invite you to participate in this groundbreaking conference that will bring together developers, community action agencies and other affordable housing and hunger advocates with permaculture experts to create a new vision for sustainability in Oregon.