Aquaponics, Food for a Hungry World

Aquaponics, Food for a Hungry World - I spend a lot of time thinking about this, although I won't be doing anything physical on it until next year. I am not writing this blog for anyone else - just me! I don't mind if no one else reads it at all, but it helps me to keep a record of my progress and my thinking.

But if you do decide to read it, feel free to comment!

Thursday 2 August 2012

Black Soldier Fly Farm Construction

What follows is almost completely based on the instructions written by Jerry in the Black Soldier Fly Blog.

Parts:
1 x 25 litre lidded bucket with lid £9.99
1 x length 40mm PVC pipe (black is cheaper) (1.5m) £1.64
1 x length 22mm overflow pipe £1.99
1 x ‘T’ joiner £0.99
1 x straight coupler £1.49
2 x 22mm 90deg elbow £1.20
1 x 35cm plant pot saucer £3.49
1 x length 22mm clear Plastic Pipe £3.98
3 x small plastic flower pots (70mm high) £0.18
1 x piece weed suppressing membrane .. .. ..
1 x Water butt tap £3.37
PVC cement, silicone sealant, PVA glue .. .. ..

Total £28.32

Taking my lead from the BSF blog instructions, but with a couple of my own variations, I purchased a 25 litre lidded bucket from Kernow Grow and Brew in Penryn, plumbing bits from Wickes (following the cheapest route), plant pot saucer from The Range, clear plastic tube from Chacewater Aquatics, and the water butt tap from eBay. Everything else comes from my own personal junkyard!

I first cut the 40mm pipe, two pieces for the top of the vent and a short piece to go through the lid, then I used a hole saw on the lid. The straight coupler goes on the underside of the lid, just to secure the vent in the hole. All this is assembled with PVC cement, and that is the lid complete.

Next, I used a small hack saw to trim the saucer to size, so that it sits 70mm from the bottom of the bucket and tight to the sides, with the edge turning upwards to contain soldier grubs and compost away from the edge and for better drainage.

I drilled several holes in the saucer (and caused two or three cracks to appear) and cut a piece of membrane to size. The membrane is glued to the saucer with a number of blobs of PVA glue – I’m not sure how effective this will be – I may have to rethink the filter!

The three flower pots are held in place, upside down at the bottom of the bucket, with silicone, to support the filter.

For the exit point for the mature grubs I drilled a hole for the 90deg elbow, which needed to be 25mm and just under the lip at the top of the bucket. Unfortunately I found drilling a clean hole in the soft plastic of the bucket difficult, so this is a bit of a dog’s dinner. It is held in place with silicone, but not well – but this doesn’t matter as the joint doesn’t need to be watertight. I have connected the other elbow to it outside the bucket with 45mm of 22mm pipe (I had to buy 2 metres!). A second length of the 22mm pipe comes down from the elbow, and will lead into a container for the mature bugs to become flies.
I cut a shovel shape from a milk container to be fixed to the bottom of the escape tube, and have used a piece of the clear plastic to lead the mature grubs to the top of the bucket.

The ventilation slots were cut, as suggested by Jerry, by drilling a hole at each end of each slot, and cutting through with a hacksaw blade. The water butt tap required a 25mm hole to be drilled near the bottom of the bucket, and I fixed the tap on its side, to allow the hole to be as low as possible. Of course I could put the bucket on a stand of some kind and set the tap properly – but it really doesn’t matter!

I await the arrival of my soldier fly larvae (I have ordered 100 small ones) which cost £5.15 including postage.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday 18 July 2012

The Great Food Conundrum

If you listen closely to the various pundits on the subject of impending global food shortages, you will be forced to recognise that they all contradict each other!

World population is ever growing – or is it? Several countries are reportedly worried about their falling birth rates, and some say that world population will peak at 9 billion, an increase of less than a third. Bad enough, but manageable!

Global food production will have to double (or treble, or quadruple) to cope with increasing demand – or will it? Some say that the problem is one of distribution and that we already produce enough food worldwide to feed 12 billion people.

It will be necessary to use GMOs to increase productivity or millions will starve – or will they? Just over a year ago a UN report on the right to food made it clear that agroecological farming methods, practised by small scale farmers, particularly in poverty-stricken areas, increased productivity dramatically; and in this context small scale farmers’ organisations should be supported. Amazingly this report doesn’t mention GM crops, but indicates that large monocultural agribusinesses are definitely not the way forward.

The crazy thing is that anyone who takes an interest in food production, or grows their own food, knows all this instinctively. But big business has the big bucks and big bucks buy influence. So even if a few politicians ‘get it’ they are not as powerful as ‘Big Agro’, and can do nothing to redirect food production into more sensible avenues.

But there are more and more individuals and small community organisations that do ‘get it’. People like Tamar Grow Local, for example; a CIC which promotes and supports the growing and sale of local produce in the Tamar Valley. And as fuel and fossil-fuel-based fertiliser gets more expensive, maybe the penny will drop with consumers, who may start to realise that it is local food producers who will be the cheapest, as well as providing local jobs and keeping us healthy. And more and more of us will be growing our own food – provided the right kind of support is given by local authorities and central government.

There are so many great opportunities out there; aquaponics of course, community supported agriculture, allotments, community gardens – not since the war years have so many people started to think for themselves about how to feed themselves and their communities. It will take time for the momentum to build, but build it will!

Monday 28 May 2012

At Last!

My house renovation is finally finished, and I have a For Sale board outside.

It's true that future projects, and in particular my aquaponics project, depend on finding a buyer, but I am closer to that point than before, with no further obstacles to a sale - and though I say so myself, it is a very pleasant little property!

Now that the hard work is done, I have time to continue researching. If all goes well, I am planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand to visit family and friends before I start building my system, so construction of insulated polytunnel (Keder house), and installation of heated fish tank and growbeds will not start before 2013. Meanwhile, as I follow the activities of practising aquaponics people in America and Australia, my thoughts and ideas continue to mature. (Impatient as I am to get started, until I can move house nothing else can happen!)

Thus it was that I started to look into the possibility of growing mushrooms as part of the project. I spotted a video clip of Will Allen growing mushrooms in his greenhouses, so it is clearly possible - but it is a matter of finding the most appropriate method for my situation which is cost effective and productive in the long term. (A single flush of mushrooms lasting a week or two is no good to me!)

For the moment, though, it is a frustrating waiting game, waiting for that enthusiastic house buyer to knock at my door! Here is a link to my selling agent's details