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The downside being its not scalable. You need an entirely artificial setup to get aquaponics up and running, motors, pipes, and chemical cleaning. Don't get me

by acadien 12y ago

The downside being its not scalable. You need an entirely artificial setup to get aquaponics up and running, motors, pipes, and chemical cleaning. Don't get me wrong aquaponics is a great technology, I think it needs some changes in order to make it feasible for the large scale.

jdcskillet 12y ago
The scale is achieved through the local communities. I understand we would still need large scale farming ventures, but local communities can use aquaponics to be more self-sufficient. A large "regular" ag business can support many smaller satellite aquaponic setups. Much like a distributed computing system achieves scale.
ChuckMcM 12y ago
That is what they are tackling, the scalable aspects. Their goal is to get to thousands of equivalent acres and they are looking at the places where the system runs into scaling issues. I don't know if they will be successful but they have a heck of a start. In one of those interesting coincidences there is a well funded and ready market for intermediate versions from the marijuana folks as well. There are a number of venture firms putting money in that space. When my wife did the solar panel installation boot camp (back in 2001) (a week of training followed by work on a job site installing panels) roughly half the students were there from pot farms as well.
- acadien 12y ago
  Yeah the marijuana community always seems to be on the cutting edge of growing technology, much the same way the gaming community often leads use of cutting computing technology. Anyways, a 'thousands of acres equivalent' solution would be absolutely fascinating to see implemented.
  - golergka 12y ago
    Also reminds how porn industry is often on the cutting edge on content delivery and analytics as well.
- MattGrommes 12y ago
  I wonder if the legalization of pot will end a lot of the experimentation. From I understand, the point of a lot of the technology of pot growing came from trying to get good yields "under cover" so to speak. If growing in a field just like corn is legal, will people still push technology?
  - narrowrail 12y ago
    Artificial light is still required for year-round cultivation. Growing outside in the winter, even where possible in the U.S., still presents a problem because of the light cycle. If there is not enough light, the plant will go into a budding cycle before it's large enough to support a healthy yield.

by acadien 12y ago

jdcskillet 12y ago

The scale is achieved through the local communities. I understand we would still need large scale farming ventures, but local communities can use aquaponics to be more self-sufficient. A large "regular" ag business can support many smaller satellite aquaponic setups. Much like a distributed computing system achieves scale.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

That is what they are tackling, the scalable aspects. Their goal is to get to thousands of equivalent acres and they are looking at the places where the system runs into scaling issues. I don't know if they will be successful but they have a heck of a start. In one of those interesting coincidences there is a well funded and ready market for intermediate versions from the marijuana folks as well. There are a number of venture firms putting money in that space. When my wife did the solar panel installation boot camp (back in 2001) (a week of training followed by work on a job site installing panels) roughly half the students were there from pot farms as well.

acadien 12y ago
Yeah the marijuana community always seems to be on the cutting edge of growing technology, much the same way the gaming community often leads use of cutting computing technology. Anyways, a 'thousands of acres equivalent' solution would be absolutely fascinating to see implemented.
- golergka 12y ago
  Also reminds how porn industry is often on the cutting edge on content delivery and analytics as well.
MattGrommes 12y ago
I wonder if the legalization of pot will end a lot of the experimentation. From I understand, the point of a lot of the technology of pot growing came from trying to get good yields "under cover" so to speak. If growing in a field just like corn is legal, will people still push technology?
- narrowrail 12y ago
  Artificial light is still required for year-round cultivation. Growing outside in the winter, even where possible in the U.S., still presents a problem because of the light cycle. If there is not enough light, the plant will go into a budding cycle before it's large enough to support a healthy yield.