A partnership of Great Lakes WATER Institute, Urban Aquaculture Center, and Growing Power toward a major new Great Lakes industry…fish farming. * *GROWING POWER 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive Milwaukee, WI 53216
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Howard Hinterthuer Growing Power (414) 527–1546 or (262) 573–0325 Here is reassuring news for all of us who are fans of the Wisconsin fish fry in general and the gloriously delicious yellow perch in particular. Growing Power (55th and Silver Spring), with assistance from the Great Lakes Water Institute, is raising yellow perch in an aquaponic system that mimics nature. As a follow-up to a successful 2007 90-day trial at Growing Power that produced 800 plate size perch, the group will release 10,000 fish into Growing Power's system on Friday, April 18th between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. to begin a more aggressive 90-day trial. To keep the fish happy and healthy, Growing Power's enclosed system circulates the water through aquatic plants, edible garden plants, and other living filter materials that extract and use the nitrates and solid wastes from the fish. "It's a system that closely replicates nature," says Will Allen, CEO and founder of Growing Power. "In this instance there is a symbiotic relationship between the fish and the plants. The plants function in much the same way as a wetland, filtering the water and making the nutrients available to plants. We have been able to build a functioning system inside of our greenhouses, and effectively increase our overall production of food. We've been raising tilapia ( Nile tilapia, O. niloticus) using this method for twelve years. The only difference is the perch like cooler water." The system is of great interest to other potential perch producers. According to Leon Todd, who with Jon Bales, is striving to launch an urban aquaculture center in Milwaukee , "Such business venture systems can replenish lake perch for the dinner table . . . . and fill up empty buildings, providing employment in Milwaukee and elsewhere." Based upon the Growing Power model, the Urban Aquaculture Center hopes to offer aquaculture training to entrepreneurs who wish to produce fish, and educational opportunities to school groups and others with regard to natural systems, working with nature, and sustainable strategies. Todd, Bales, the Great Lakes Water Institute and others are interested in the work at Growing Power because it is providing "proof of concept" data. Says Bales of the first Growing Power trial, "Not only did the perch survive this ecologically designed system but, from one who knows, the fish tasted just great!" Here is some background from Fred Binkowski of the Great Lakes Water Institute: Aquaculture related commerce within the US Great Lakes locality continues to be an emerging industry. This region is home to approximately 29% of the US population that consumes more than one billion pounds of seafood products per year. However, the commercial aquaculture industry in this region generates less than 4% of all US production. This raises the obvious question: What are the constraints that are limiting aquaculture production within the US Great Lakes locality, and what action is required to address this problem? The Great Lakes Aquaculture Center (GLAC) at the UW Great Lakes WATER Institute has been conducting fundamental and applied research as a function of improving aquaculture technology for Great Lakes species production. This research encompasses a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines including reproduction, engineering, nutrition, fish health, genetics, and animal husbandry principles. In addition, the GLAC has been a leader in an aquaculture Training/Outreach/Education program relative to workshops, providing resource information, on-site assistance, technology transfer, etc. In cooperation with Growing Power Inc, we propose to demonstrate the potential of utilizing the existing and current urban greenhouse aquaponic systems to allow for year-round and cost-effective fish production for human consumption in a northern climate in conjunction with herb and vegetable production in a bio-secured system. This technological approach can be applied to a rural location and within an urban community. Urban aquaculture can reduce shipping costs, place the product at the center of consumer demand, and create jobs in economically deprived urban areas. We are confident that the cooperative effort between the Great Lakes WATER Institute, Growing Power, and the Urban Aquaculture Center will provide the foundation for the establishment of an urban aquaculture industry. *Specific Study Parameters* continued at... *http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GrowingPowerPressRelease* More good news about Growing Power urban agriculture systems in Milwaukee, Chicago, and New York, see... *London Report on U.S. Urban Agriculture: "Edible Cities"* *http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/EdibleCities * * * ** ** ** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20080418/b1f3ffc4/attachment.html _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. 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