Pretty soon you’ll be able to choose between Iowa Beef and fresh Iowa Salmon, farmed and slaughter by the migrants you know.
intercst
5 Likes
I fail to see how this is any less “unclean” than offshore pen-raised fish. And where they getting the water from? And where does the dirty used water go? And how will that affect the larger environment. Looks like another pig-in-a-poke. Just like existing fish farming was. According to the article even when you farm fish, if they escape (a given) they cause a loss of the unfarmed population. Not all diversity is good I guess. Ha ha. Gee? Who should we hate over that one…?
Of course inland farming won’t have that problem but the other questions remain.
2 Likes
I live in an arid area of Mexico in central Mexico, not desert, but water is precious. My walks often take me by a closed cycle green house facility that hydroponically grows a huge variety of exquisite lettuces, vegetables such as collard greens, chards, kales, beets, onions, and all manner of herbs. When I visit I first go through a disinfecting room, donning booties and super-light overalls, and then through a double door that prevents the escape of moist air. That allows the facility to skip insecticides, herbicides and other chemicals used to control fungi etc. The huge water retaining clear plastic roof sheds for the gigantic hydroponic plant beds also have large tanks where tilapia fish are raised, and they are starting to experiment with other fish as well, with plans for farmed salmon when the facility is big enough.
The “dirty water” from the fish provides the main nutrient base for the hydroponically grown vegetables, and the vegetable “waste” (unused plant parts) is used as feed to rabbits raised externally and/or composted, or simply ground up, the combination providing the main food for the algae in the tanks that feeds the tilapia. As with the world ecological system the sun provides the main “external” input. The owner plans on branching out to other farmed fish including salmon as her total volume of production grows.
That is the future.
david fb
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Fascinating fb. Any links where I can read about that place specifically? Spot
Here you go:
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Here’s a good article on the Chinaberry Farm from the local paper in San Miguel de Allende.
We have a few of these industrial-sized indoor lettuce farms (without the aquaponics) in Vancouver that sell their lettuce greens in local grocery stores. It’s about 5 times the cost of Iceberg lettuce produced in California’s Central Valley, though I’m sure the Centfal Valley lettuce uses 100 times the water.
intercst
3 Likes
Chinaberry Farms has multiple colorful exquisite tasting very very non iceberg lettuces. They are just like the rich lettuces my greatgrandma down through my mother grew and fed me from their back yards in Colfax Washington (ggm), Portland Oregon (gm), and Los Angeles (mom). I am convinced that the nutrient content is also much higher.
Chinaberry is somewhat of a fluke. If tales I am told are correct the founding original inverstor was not the previous owner but a semi-retired couple with a strong commitment to ecology. They got destroyed by overoptimism and bad luck, and sold at what I am convinced was a significant loss to the current very hardworking woman owner just as the Covid pandemic shut down most of the San Miguel Allende restaurants that had been the original targeted customers. New owner worked very hard reaching out to retail customers like me (I often hold outdoor NGO fundraising events starring local performing artists and cook for up to 150 people at a time), and Chinaberry managed to survive. As restaurants reopened she was more than ready. I am thrilled with her ongoing success and recent expansion, but am keeping my fingers crossed.
david fb
10 Likes