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  • From: Brent McMillan <brent@gp.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Aquaculture in the City
  • Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:01:14 -0400

Dear Permies:

I just received this from Leon Todd. I found the idea intriguing.

Sincerely:

Brent McMillan

Jon Bales and Leon Todd will attend the Green Living Festival at the Mitchell Park Conservatory ("The Domes") on Saturday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They will have a UAC booth inside the Show Dome.

Aquaculture in the City
MILWAUKEE - There are many reasons the urban aquaculture movement in Milwaukee supports the approach of fish farming in the city according to John Bales one of the founders of the Urban Aquaculture Centre in Milwaukee.

Growing fish indoors is a highly productive and secure means for producing fish at a time when the security of our food supply is a major concern, he says.

He maintains that aquaculture is a growth industry with the potential to alleviate health concerns with wild caught fish. It also addresses the US seafood trade deficit that in dollar value is second only to oil.

"In addition, we know that harvesting fish from Lake Michigan waters does not satisfy demand, and commercial yields of fish from many areas of the Great Lakes are substantially below historic levels. Demand continues to rise, and it is clear that aquaculture must grow with the demand," says Mr Bales.

"The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations informs us that compared to Asia’s contribution to the world’s aquaculture of over 90 per cent, all of North America contributes less than two per cent."

He adds: "Recent articles suggest that as a nation, we are not taking full advantage of the aquaculture research being produced by our excellent research institutions. The Great Lakes WATER Institute here in Milwaukee is a leading research center for growing yellow perch and sturgeon, and the transfer of technology for commercial production is encouraged, with new approaches welcomed by governmental agencies and educational institutions involved in this research and charged with its dissemination."

In Milwaukee, the Urban Aquaculture Center (UAC) is working to expand the industry using an approach that engages the community.

The UAC hopes to have Milwaukee lead the growth of urban aquaculture in the United States.

To address the problem of the risk involved in start-up operations, the UAC is seeking to have all of Milwaukee take on urban aquaculture as a new industry. This project requires the cooperation of all stakeholders — government, academia, and local businesses.

What the UAC proposes is a large-scale perch production facility and an education center for the public, oriented to urban agriculture, particularly aquaculture.

"Milwaukee is uniquely positioned for this endeavor for two primary reasons: its proximity to fresh water and to Growing Power, an urban teaching farm growing edible plants with fish in the same system." says Mr Bales.

"The Great Lakes WATER Institute and Growing Power are conducting experiments on the ability of plants, worms and bacteria to remediate water in a perch grow-out system. The results thus far are encouraging. Adult perch have done well in a greenhouse environment with only a pump to move water to gravel beds containing plants and beneficial nitrifying bacteria. This system, which closely mimics nature, shows promise."

He said there is more preliminary work to be done.

Proper design, analysis, and implementation of an urban fish farm are necessary to insure its success. This means a thorough feasibility study is needed by the stakeholders, including the public.

At all levels, a government’s commitment to provide increased support to the aquaculture sector is a prerequisite for the sector’s sustainable development, Mr Bales adds. Farming fish as an urban enterprise needs to be developed with the best management practices available. The UAC has been deliberate about assembling a board of directors with the talent and drive necessary to realize a possible $20 million center. Its initial goal is to conduct such a feasibility study.

The mission of the UAC includes preparing citizens to learn to live in a sustainable way through educational exhibits and community demonstrations on urban aquaculture and its global benefits. As a social enterprise, the UAC says it wants to become a destination attraction and develop a five-acre campus to house a research and education center, a production facility, restaurant and fish market.

TheFishSite News Desk

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/6576/aquaculture-in-the-city

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In Milwaukee Buzz
Urban Aquaculture Center offers cutting-edge fish production

Jon Bales (left) and Leon Todd "man" a booth for their proposed Urban Aquaculture Center.

By Molly Snyder Edler

OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writer

E-mail author | Author bio
More articles by Molly Snyder Edler

Published April 2, 2008 at 12:16 a.m.

Tags: urban aquaculture center, leon todd, jon bales, urban fishing, fishing

If things look a little greener around here this April, there's a good reason. Our editorial staff is busy expanding the ideals of Earth Day into a month-long celebration of energy conservation, alternative transportation, recycling tips and about a million ways you can be a better friend to the planet. Welcome to Green Month, Milwaukee.

Within 10 years, the fishing industry will find it necessary to modify practices because long term mass capture of fish resulted in a shortage of schools and many that are plagued with toxic pollutants like mercury and PCBs. The outlook sounds grim – especially for a city filled with fish fry lovers – but Jon Bales and Leon Todd have a solution for Milwaukee.

They proposed an Urban Aquaculture Center (UAC), a large-scale production and educational facility, to serve as an "urban fish farm." The center would provide a solution to many of the environmental problems associated with unsustainable current fishing practices.

The proposed UAC includes a 150,000-sq. ft. indoor aquaculture / agriculture facility with an attached greenhouse located on five acres of redeveloped land, ideally along the Hank Aaron Trail and Menomonee River or a large, unused factory site.

Also, the center would feature classrooms for school groups, free demonstration to the public, a "lazy river" boat ride that floats through sustainable urban farming exhibits, restaurant, gift shop and fish market.

"My vision for the Urban Aquaculture Center is to develop a fish production-oriented center in a pleasant setting in Milwaukee to demonstrate that aquaculture is a viable and sustainable farming enterprise in a green urban environment," says Bales.

The production facility will utilize a recirculating aquaculture system treats the water with clarifiers, filters or trays of edible plants, and then the fish reuse it. According to Todd and Bayles, this system produces many more fish that those grown in rural ponds.

"It's all about growing good protein, free of environmental contaminants, in a recirculating system which doesn't pollute," says Todd.

Bales was raised in Milwaukee, attended Bay View High School and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) with a degree in botany. He served with the U.S. Navy as a flight instructor and carrier pilot in the Mediterranean Sea. During the '90s, he was appointed Commissioner for the Housing Authority in Milwaukee. He recently sold his coffee plantation and trout farm in Costa Rica, and now wants to promote fish farming to the people of Milwaukee.

Todd received an MBA from UWM School of Business Administration and a BA in Latin & Greek Classic Studies at Northwestern Lutheran College. In 1975, Leon was elected to the MPS Board of School Directors, held a city-wide seat and served until 1981. He was a candidate for state superintendent in 1977 and was re-elected to a MPS district seat in 1994 and again in 1995.

The Urban Aquaculture Center is Todd's next venue for expressing his vision for education and employment development. "This is a new paradigm in thinking 'outside of the bun' to replace the manufacturing jobs lost over the last three decades in Milwaukee," he says.

The UAC concept is a national prototype and, if created, would give Milwaukee the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of urban aquaculture. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recently stated: "Aquaculture, probably the fastest growing food producing sector, now accounts for almost 50 percent of the world's food fish and is perceived as having the greatest potential to meet the growing demand for aquatic food."

"Many local organizations are working tirelessly to bring the local food movement into the city with new urban ideas, encouraging future generations to get back to the land and grow and eat close to home, rather than importing from places far off," says Bales. "The Urban Aquaculture Center is hoping to bring Milwaukee into the 21st century in terms of fish production and to provide an innovative solution to several environmental problems involved with fish."

The UAC partners with Growing Power, the Great Lakes WATER Institute and other public and private organizations. For more information about the UAC, please visit their Web site.

Jon Bales and Leon Todd will attend the Green Living Festival at the Mitchell Park Conservatory ("The Domes") on Saturday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They will have a UAC booth inside the Show Dome.

Related links:

http://urbanaquaculturecenter.com/




  • [permaculture] Aquaculture in the City, Brent McMillan, 04/04/2008

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