Ecolonomic Life

You have all seen the show on Discovery Channel called Myth Busters, right? They pick topics like – can Jaws really bite through a boat, or can you put high explosives inside a cement truck mixer and clean it out. Then they use made for TV experimentation to either prove or invalidate the “myth”.

To some extent, in a much more programmatic manner, that is what we are doing on a daily basis in our research program at IOE. So what are the myths we have busted? Specifically in the infant technology of aquaponics, where we have been conducting a substantial amount of research over the last three years, we have at least raised some questions about a variety of myths. I know that as you read some of these you are gig to gasp, or maybe say –
heresy!! But anyway, here goes:

– trout will not survive in aquaculture systems when temperatures consistently stay above 25 C.
– multi-species fish culture in the same system is not practical.
– limited spectrum fluorescent lighting will not work efficiently with indoor edible plant production.
– water quality in aquaculture systems cannot be effectively managed by simple bio-mimicry methodology.

Well, how do you like us now? How can we call ourselves scientists? Hold on, let us defend ourselves. In the next period of time we will provide very detailed and scientifically validated data regarding the above conclusions. You just need to keep coming back to these posts and see how we save or reputations. We hope you will give us this chance. You will be glad you did. Till next time, just remember, you cannot call yourself a fish farmer until you have killed a million fish.