How Aquaponics can save the Florida Everglades

The destruction of the Florida Everglades is nothing new. Although it is not broadcasted often, the poisoning and drying out of the Everglades is a gradually worsening disaster, resulting in toxified rivers, dead animals and massive wildfires. This affects millions of people every year in South Florida. Because much of the land surrounding the Everglades is commercial farmland, the toxic pesticides that they use are brought into the ecosystem of the Everglades via rainstorms, groundwater and canals on a daily basis. The way to fix this is simple: implement the toxin-free process of aquaponic farming in the place of the commercial farmland in order to create massive sustainable farms that do not adversely affect the surrounding ecosystem. Seventh Generation Solutions has already begun combatting this epidemic. They specialize in creating and maintaining all sizes of aquaponics systems, ranging from their single-herb Shrimp Jar System to full, commercial-sized aquaponics systems. The implementation of commercial systems into the mainstream will lead to incredible changes in the state of the environment all over the world. Do your best to spread awareness of the environmental benefits of aquaponics throughout the agricultural community. Every bit counts!

Hi John. Welcome to Permies.

I have often thought that if aquatic systems were augmented with natural plant and animal filtration (filter-feeders, for instance, and heavy-feeding riparian tree guilds and reed and marsh grass systems), a sustainable harvest might be made of what is effectively an overabundance of nutrients.

If supplementary stages and physical filters are used in conjunction, such as myco-booms and the riverene equivalent of inter-tidal biochar gabion installations, these could set the infrastructural stage for water-based large-scale aquaponics, even just raft-based systems, at first, and working up to sustainably-designed and operated vertical river-culture plant and animal food systems.

This kind of industry (I hesitate to use the word, but what else do you call a whole sector of business?) would essentially use as its feedstock the excess nutrients that cause such problems as algal blooms that eutrophy water systems and toxify waterways. If lack of oxygen were an issue, it would be no problem for a sustainable food system to mechanically oxygenate the water upstream of its operations, enhancing excess nutrient uptake and system output, both.

And if this kind of operation had a mandate to act as positive filtration on its part of the river system or part of the Everglades, such that water exiting the system was cleaner than that entering it, there would be positive feedback throughout natural and human systems downstream.

I really like this idea. It applies to all river systems, to one extent or another.

-CK