Maximum Yield Modern Growing | UK EU Edition | May June 2017

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microponics INTEGRATED FOOD PRODUCTION Integrated systems are always more than the sum of their parts. Integration, in a microfarming context, is essentially about value creation. An integrated food production system should provide for better quality, greater quantity, shorter timeframe, and lower cost. Aquaponics is the integration of fish and plants through the combination of recirculating aquaculture and hydroponics. Aquaponics is an example of integration on a small scale: the fish produce waste that is converted to plant nutrients, the plants take up the nutrients; and, in so doing, clean the water for the fish. Microponics is the integration of fish, plants, and microlivestock through the combination of recirculating aquaculture and other plant and animal production systems. We eat the fruit, vegetables, herbs, and fish from our aquaponics systems and the wastes from our kitchen go to the worms or black soldier fly larvae. The worms and larvae are then mixed with duckweed to become food for other microlivestock. In this simple model, there is no actual waste in a landfill sense. The so-called waste product of one organism becomes the feedstock for another. And the scope of integration doesn’t stop there. We can add other small livestock (like rabbits, chickens, quail, ducks, snails, and bees) and water gardening for edible plants like Chinese water chestnuts and water spinach. In this extended model of integration, we get fish, quail/chicken/duck meat and eggs, worm castings/tea, duckweed, vegetables, herbs, rabbits, skins, and honey. We also get pollination, pest control, cultivation, and weed removal. MICROPONICS ORIGINS The challenge when designing small integrated food production systems is to see every output as a resource, even waste body heat and expired carbon dioxide. When I first set out to describe a concept of small-scale integrated food production several years ago, I called it integrated backyard food production (IBFP). Like aquaponics, IBFP is a descendant of the integrated aquaculture work of the New Alchemist Institute. With its inclusion of microlivestock, however, IBFP has retained a more direct relationship with integrated aquaculture. “Integrated backyard food production” became too much of a mouthful, so in 2008, it became microponics. The name suggests its own origins— the combination of micro-farming, microlivestock, and aquaponics. When it comes to fish production, aquaponics and microponics both start off in the same place. A recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), or micro fish farm, is at the heart of both microponics and aquaponics. The connection of a plant-growing system to the RAS creates a simple aquaponic ecosystem that, because they are in the same water column, benefits both the fish and the plants. In the past 10 years or so, we’ve designed and built many aquaponics systems in which we’ve grown jade perch, barramundi, silver perch, and Murray cod. We’ve also experimented widely with hydroponic growing systems including nutrient film technique (NFT), raft culture, tray system, and satellite pots. 44 grow cycle
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Maximum Yield Modern Growing | UK EU Edition | May June 2017

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