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Kate Humble: aquaponics is the answer to our growing food crisis Kate Humble: aquaponics is the answer to our growing food crisis
(about 2 months later)
A A collective "ooh" went up as the condensation cleared from a new 12 x 7 metre structure to reveal the UK's first aquaponic solar greenhouse, in the perhaps unlikely environs of Kate Humble's 117-acre ex-council farm in Monmouthshire, Wales.
collective "ooh" went up as the condensation cleared from a new 12 x 7 metre This is a greenhouse with a surprising wow factor. Inside, you can make out the blue of the fish tanks containing male tilapia (a species chosen as they grow rapidly to harvest size and as one of yesterday's visitors put it "taste lovely on a barbecue") and the raised beds full of fledgling vegetable crops. Of course, there is also much that you can't see – which is rather the point with a closed-loop food production system that needs little interference; the vegetable beds fill and drain, twice an hour, sustained by nutrient-rich water from the fish tanks.
structure to reveal the UK's first aquaponic solar greenhouse, in the perhaps unlikely That this breakthrough technology with implications for the nation's diet is all going on on a little farm in Monmouthshire rather than in an agricultural science institution might seem incongruous, but that has everything to do with the tenacity of the farm's owner, TV presenter Kate Humble. When the Guardian visited her back in April it was clear she believes wholeheartedly in the regeneration of small-scale farming, and the company, Humble by Nature, she runs from this working farm, hosts courses that range from dry stone walling to keeping pigs designed for people to "leave filthy, exhausted and with their clothing completely ruined".
environs of Kate Humble's 117-acre ex-council farm in Monmouthshire, Three years ago this farm was about to be broken up and sold on because 117 acres was considered too small to be useful or profitable. Humble was determined that a farm of this size should and could work, and became convinced that the science of aquaponics was key. Determination seems to have been turned into a type of rocket fuel when she got angry – always a powerful motivating force. "I was listening one morning to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and I heard an interview with someone from a food bank scheme in Moreton-in-the-Marsh. He said something to the effect of: 'It's all very well being surrounded by pretty green fields, but that doesn't produce food.' I thought 'What the hell is going on?'"
Wales. She is not alone in asking herself that question and nor in her disgust that we increasingly view rural populations as unable or unwilling to grow food. Fortunately she discovered across scientists Charlie Price and Becky Bainbridge of social enterprise, Aquaponics UK, who are devoted to growing more food in less space. "We wanted to create a model to produce food in a low input way," explains Price, who is also an expert in biomass energy, "but to do so in a building that required very little energy. Ultimately it's nothing new, it's a combination of existing technologies put together in a structure."
This is a greenhouse In many ways it's about taking the heat out of the energy, water and oil requirements that dog conventional agriculture and even aquaculture and hydroponics. As Humble explains it: "You’ve got your fish in your tanks, tilapia – which do well in aquaculture - shitting away merrily, and that water full of nitrates is pumped through vegetable beds. The leafy greens love the nitrates and grow like fury, the vegetables clean the water and back it goes to the fish."
with a surprising wow factor. Inside, you can make out the blue of the fish In terms of energy, the passive thermal structure, with a thermal mass wall, captures and stores as much solar energy as possible, and then releases it into the greenhouse at night. It requires very little supplementary heating (it also wears a special thermal quilt at night). In essence this mimics the airflow of a termite mound, in a nod to biomimicry.
tanks containing male tilapia (a species chosen as they grow rapidly to harvest Feeding is also self-sustaining: the fish are fed primarily on worms from the wormeries at the back of the structure (which also supply worm tea, used as a pest preventative as a spray on the plants in the beds) but also from black soldier flies. Whereas conventional aquaculture often falls down on sustainability by the consumption of fish food from wild caught fish, the black soldier flies here eat until they pupate, then self-harvest with the aid of a cleverly positioned ramp and become fish food. And this is a completely organic system (there are no petroleum-based pesticides). In a naturally balanced system, pest control is left to species who do it naturally, and techniques such as companion planting. 'We even tried chameleons to eat pests,' says Becky Bainbridge, 'but in fact they just ate everything, even the good pests.' Now they leave it to ladybirds to deal with aphids.
size and as one of yesterday's visitors put it "taste lovely on a barbecue") In terms of yield, even this 'smallholder scale' trial hub promises much. Based on German trials, it could soon be producing between 30 and 35 kgs of fruit and vegetables a week and 200 kgs of fish a year, more than enough to supply the restaurant and cafe on site, redefining local food. The massive boon for aquaponics is of course the extended growing season it offers; despite lecturing that we must eat in season, there seems little appetite to adjust our diet accordingly. Aquaponics, in theory offers us a chance to have our bananas and eat them (all year around).
and the raised beds full of fledgling vegetable crops. Of course, there is Could aquaponics, the marriage of hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) and aquaculture (the farming of aquatic organisms) be key to boosting our food self-sufficiency and our resilience to overseas price hikes? We do need some answers. A recent University of Cambridge report tells us at the moment we're running a food, feed and drink deficit of £18.6bn. By 2030 there will be 70 million of us on these shores and the researchers tell us we'll face a 2m hectare shortfall in productive land needed to produce food.
also much that you can't see – which is rather the point with a closed-loop food What's amazing given its potential is that aquaponics has been given so little air time. You are more likely to find United Nations FAO reports and symposiums on raising insects for the table (an interesting idea but with huge societal cultural barriers in western Europe) than a food system like this which addresses the challenges of energy in food production head on in closed-loop system. "The reality is agriculture since the green revolution has been focused on monocrops," explains Price, "and putting a lot of energy into the individual crop and tailoring chemicals to make that crop as productive as possible. By contrast this is an integrated, multi-trophic ecosystem. It requires a shift in thinking. There's value in that but also it's complicated. For example if you're doing all sorts of things – raising insects for food, and different crops and species all under one system, who do you go to for funding?"
production system that needs little interference; the vegetable beds fill and In this case to the Welsh government who have funded the project to the tune of £200,000 through the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, an organisation trained on "reinventing common sense agriculture" and through their flagship Welsh project Tyfu Pobl (Growing People). As well as training up some of their communities in aquaponics at Humble by Nature they'll be looking to harvest a lot of data. Essentially what they and everybody wants to know is whether this is replicable for communities up and down the land. As we speak a proposal for a solar aquaponic greenhouse 20 times as large as this one is being considered for planning in West Sussex. Is it time for aquaponics to have its moment in the sun?
drain, twice an hour, sustained by nutrient-rich water from the fish tanks.
That this
breakthrough technology with implications for the nation's diet is all going on
on a little farm in Monmouthshire rather than in an agricultural science
institution might seem incongruous, but that has everything to do with the
tenacity of the farm's owner, TV presenter Kate Humble. When the Guardian
visited her back in April
it was clear she believes wholeheartedly in the regeneration of small-scale farming, and the company, Humble by Nature, she runs from this
working farm, hosts courses that range from dry stone walling to keeping pigs
designed for people to "leave filthy, exhausted and with their clothing
completely ruined".
Three years
ago this farm was about to be broken up and sold on because 117 acres was
considered too small to be useful or profitable.
Humble was determined that a farm of this size should and could work, and
became convinced that the science of aquaponics was key. Determination seems to
have been turned into a type of rocket fuel when she got angry – always a
powerful motivating force. "I was listening one morning to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme
and I heard an interview with someone from a food bank scheme in
Moreton-in-the-Marsh. He said something to the effect of: 'It's all very
well being surrounded by pretty green fields, but that doesn't produce
food.' I thought 'What the hell is going on?'"
She is not
alone in asking herself that question and nor in her disgust that we increasingly
view rural populations as unable or unwilling to grow food. Fortunately she discovered across scientists Charlie Price and Becky Bainbridge of social
enterprise, Aquaponics UK, who are devoted to growing more food in less space. "We wanted to create
a model to produce food in a low input way," explains Price, who is also an
expert in biomass energy, "but to do so in a building that required very little
energy. Ultimately it's nothing new, it's a combination of existing
technologies put together in a structure."
In many
ways it's about taking the heat out of the energy, water and oil requirements
that dog conventional agriculture and even aquaculture and hydroponics. As
Humble explains it: "You’ve got your fish in your tanks, tilapia – which do well
in aquaculture - shitting away merrily, and that water full of nitrates is
pumped through vegetable beds. The leafy greens love the nitrates and grow like
fury, the vegetables clean the water and back it goes to the fish."
In terms of
energy, the passive thermal structure, with a thermal mass wall, captures and
stores as much solar energy as possible, and then releases it into the
greenhouse at night. It requires very little supplementary heating (it also
wears a special thermal quilt at night). In essence this mimics the airflow of
a termite mound, in a nod to biomimicry.
Feeding is
also self-sustaining: the fish are fed primarily on worms from the wormeries at
the back of the structure (which also supply worm tea, used as a pest
preventative as a spray on the plants in the beds) but also from black soldier
flies. Whereas conventional aquaculture often falls down on sustainability by
the consumption of fish food from wild caught fish, the black soldier flies
here eat until they pupate, then self-harvest with the aid of a cleverly
positioned ramp and become fish food. And this is a completely organic system
(there are no petroleum-based pesticides). In a naturally balanced system, pest
control is left to species who do it naturally, and techniques such as
companion planting. 'We even tried chameleons to eat pests,' says Becky
Bainbridge, 'but in fact they just ate everything, even the good pests.' Now
they leave it to ladybirds to deal with aphids.
In terms of
yield, even this 'smallholder scale' trial hub promises much. Based on
German trials, it could soon be producing between 30 and 35 kgs of fruit and
vegetables a week and 200 kgs of fish a year, more than enough to supply the
restaurant and cafe on site, redefining local food. The massive boon for
aquaponics is of course the extended growing season it offers; despite
lecturing that we must eat in season, there seems little appetite to adjust our
diet accordingly. Aquaponics, in theory offers us a chance to have our bananas
and eat them (all year around).
Could
aquaponics, the marriage of hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) and
aquaculture (the farming of aquatic organisms) be key to boosting our food self-sufficiency and our resilience to overseas price hikes? We do need some
answers. A recent University of Cambridge report
tells us at the moment we're running a food, feed and drink deficit of
£18.6bn. By 2030 there will be 70 million of us on these shores and the researchers
tell us we'll face a 2m hectare shortfall in productive land needed to
produce food.
What's
amazing given its potential is that aquaponics has been given so little air
time. You are more likely to find United Nations FAO reports and symposiums on raising
insects for the table (an interesting idea but with huge societal cultural
barriers in western Europe) than a food system like this which addresses the
challenges of energy in food production head on in closed-loop system. "The
reality is agriculture since the green revolution has been focused on monocrops,"
explains Price, "and putting a lot of energy into the individual crop and
tailoring chemicals to make that crop as productive as possible. By contrast
this is an integrated, multi-trophic ecosystem. It requires a shift in
thinking. There's value in that but also it's complicated. For example if
you're doing all sorts of things – raising insects for food, and different
crops and species all under one system, who do you go to for funding?"
In this
case to the Welsh government who have funded the project to the tune of
£200,000 through the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, an organisation trained on "reinventing common sense agriculture" and through their flagship
Welsh project Tyfu Pobl (Growing People).
As well as training up some of their communities in aquaponics at Humble by
Nature they'll be looking to harvest a lot of data. Essentially what they and
everybody wants to know is whether this is replicable for communities up and
down the land. As we speak a proposal for a solar aquaponic greenhouse 20 times
as large as this one is being considered for planning in West Sussex. Is it
time for aquaponics to have its moment in the sun?
Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? Take a look at this month's Live Better challenge here.Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? Take a look at this month's Live Better challenge here.
The The Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable living. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.
Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable
living. All content is editorially independent except for pieces
labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.