Perhaps you've read where a few folks around town are forming non profits to play with the idea of aquaponics here in Greensboro. I can't help but wonder why they took the most expensive approach there is when so much free water is available.
The picture you see below is off shore fish farms located near the city of Shantou in China. At 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in length they are the world's largest floating fish farms. Here in Greensboro, North Carolina we probably eat fish imported from Shantou and other Chinese fish farms where quality control and food safety is suspect at best. Click through the image to Google maps, pan out and you'll see a gigantic oil refinery, tank farm or chemical plant stands right beside the Shantou fish farms. My guess is it's a tank farm loaded with billions of gallons of petrochemicals like gasoline and diesel fuel.
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Have I got your attention?
Considering the fact that the world's fish populations are shrinking, imported fish are suspect and Guilford County farmland is almost nonexistent, if I were the new Mayor of Greensboro or a newly elected or reelected Greensboro City Council member I might be concerned about how we plan to provide safe food to almost 280,000 residents.
I might also be concerned about unemployment.
Well it just so happens that the City of Greensboro has an asset that could provide safe food and jobs to Greensboro in Lake Brandt, Lake Townsend, Lake Higgins and other city owned lakes where floating fish farms and aquaponic gardening could be combined to provide fish, vegetables and jobs for the citizens of Greensboro. And the beauty of it is: if managed correctly it would increase the stocks and health of the existing fish in the lakes making fishing there even better than it is today.
By floating gardens directly on top of the fish cages there is no need to water or fertilize the plants. The fish eat plant roots but not enough to harm the plants and the plants take in nutrient rich waters made rich by the fish in a natural cycle that purifies the water reducing the cost of water purification the city must pay. And of course it would require people to work it.
Fish farms could also be built indoors in vacant buildings anywhere in town employing people year 'round and eventually the industry would be big enough to support a local packing house. And the byproducts can be used to make animal feeds, fertilizers, fuel and more. Nothing goes to waste.
If I were on city council I'd be talking requests for proposals. Who knows, maybe the City of Greensboro could lease lake space by the square foot to aquaponic farmers and return a profit.
