Vertical Gardens.
Project Manager.
Is aquaponics really a good option for countries in poverty?
In the past few years there has been a huge movement, that of worldwide proportions, a movement that people dedicate their lives to, their livelihood to, that people risk everything for, that movement is the environmental movement. Many companies have sprouted from this movement. Some have even been created. This initially started when scientists started reporting their findings that the environment was in decline. For many this was a rude awakening, something that they were not awere of until those findings were being reported. It is interesting to see how that effects people and how they live their lives.
Thus the idea of sustainability was born, people started to want to make their impact smaller, they became more and more innovative in their thinking. Creating concepts that had never been thought of before, one of these was hydro and aquaponics. People believe that this decreases their impact because of multiple uses and ways of growing their own food. At some point the idea that hydro and aquaponics could be a healthy option for people of third world countries. The question that should be discussed is asking if this is actually a viable option for these people.
There are two points to be argued here the first of which being the affirmative. Citizens of third world countries do not have that much money and are just trying to stay alive. Their problem is that they don’t have the resources that they need to create their own livelihood. Things like access to water so that their plants do not die in the extreme sunlight. This water also needs to be clean of toxins so that it does not transfer to the plants and harm their family. In America we do not have to worry about these things but these people that are in poverty have to, they do not have a choice. They do not have easy access to the things that we do, and if they do it is at an extreme price. Also these people could be in very remote locations, they have the money but not the access. Their living conditions are not extensive and they therefore do not have the space to create huge farms. They probable also do not have access to clean water. Again all these things are not issues in America, where all these objects are easy to find and obtain for a relatively small price with good return. All these things being true why would anyone not use an aquaponics system after knowing all the benefits? They have a compact structure, simple design, multiple use (both for selling the food that is grown and sustaining your own family on it), and also the environmental benefits. All of the before stated things make these systems seem like they are worth it to many, and the point of this paper isn’t to say that they are not, but challenging the thinking to say these things.
Aquaponics although good in theory also have many problems that could be crucial in creating a healthy system. The first being the problems with the pumps. All aquaponics systems require a pump that carries the water from the tub that the fish live in to the top of where the plants start. Should the system not have that pump it would not function at all. This obviosly would be problematic for the owner. This is affecting the people in third world countries because should something malfunction with that pump they would probably be the only person around to fix it. Short of taking a long trip to the nearest town, probably by foot. A good majority of these people are not educated, and if they are it is certainly not in mechanics. Any very small problem could be highly difficult for them to fix and while the problem is being resolved it could be killing their fish. Another problem that could result is the fish dying or not having seeds, although these are very small things that are devastating to a small farmer who does not know how to fix things a can’t function with out them.
All in all, the benefits to aquaponics and hyroponics are much more significant than that of the counter, and would be highly beneficial for most people.
