VertiCulture believes that the issue of raising enough fish and other high quality sources of animal protein to feed New York City’s population has been largely overlooked in the local sustainable urban agriculture movement. In order to reach the goal of creating healthy, self-sustaining city populations, consideration must be given to the current source of our fish and other animal protein, and how to start producing them more locally and at a viable scale.

Aquaponics offers an innovative, technological solution that is based on ecological design and is inherently sustainable. The system feeds and maintains itself through simple biological and chemical processes that mimic natural wetland ecosystems. There are no chemical inputs, water is reused through a recirculating water purifying system, and substantial amounts of fish and fresh fruits and vegetables can be produced cleanly and without any genetic modification, antibiotics, artificial growth hormones, inorganic fertilizers or pesticides.

Current large-scale industrial farming is one of the most environmentally damaging human practices on the planet. Yet, as our population soars exponentially to an expected population of 10 billion people in the next 40 years, we will need to expand production of arable land to approximately 1 billion hectares (20% larger than the land mass of Brazil). However, this amount of arable land DOES NOT exist and 80% of the land that is suitable for growing crops is already currently in use. Furthermore, through continued mismanagement and high inputs of toxic chemicals, over 15% of this arable land to date has been degraded to a non-arable state. (FAO and NASA)

In addition to degradation of arable land through conventional agriculture, current farming practices consume 70% of the potable fresh water worldwide. Nearly all of this water is rendered useless or undrinkable once used by agriculture due to contamination by pesticides and fertilizers.

Additionally, wild commercial fishery populations have diminished drastically through unsustainable harvesting practices and increasing human demand. Stocks of traditionally sought after fish species, such as salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna, are at dangerously low numbers and are at risk of becoming extinct all together. Commercial fish farming and aquaculture operations have tried to increase supply but have created toxic aquatic environments where genetically modified fish are plagued with disease and threaten viable wild populations when they escape into fragile ecosystems. These traditionally sought after fish species are not ideal for growing in confined aquaculture settings due to difficulties with breeding and unfavorable feed to pounds of edible fish ratios. In contrast, aquaponics employs fish species that are ideal for closed aquaculture due to their prolific breeding habits, tolerance of variable environmental conditions, and ability to survive off of completely vegetarian feed with a very favorable feed to pounds of edible meat ratio.

By 2050, 80% of the human population is expected to reside in urban centers. VertiCulture is working to promote and enhance a form of ecologically sound urban agriculture that can produce ample amounts of high quality fish and vegetables while promoting land preservation, freshwater conservation, and sustainable aquaculture practices. Bringing production to the local urban level will provide ample opportunities for job training and creation in the field of Sustainable Urban Agriculture.

Lack of fresh affordable food and lack of education about how to obtain this food in low income neighborhoods throughout NYC along with other institutional barriers are at the core of food injustice and food access issues in the city. Affordable scalable aquaponics systems, which VertiCulture is developing on the rooftop of 33 Flatbush Avenue, will provide a viable answer to where this healthy affordable food can come from. The ultimate goal of this project is to promote the practice of sustainable aquaponics throughout NYC by developing highly efficient decentralized production facilities. These facilities will be used to both grow food and train individuals in their neighborhoods on how to run the systems, thus providing communities with the resources and knowledge necessary to combat food access and food sovereignty issues locally.

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