Travis Hughey's Barrel-Ponics System
Having a very “engineery” mind I often find that when I am working the creative side of my brain is overpowered by the logical side of my brain, thus hampering the emergence of new and imaginative ideas. So whenever I need some creativity and innovation in my work, I take the problem and “dream” on it – which generally means that I tuck it into the back of my mind and process it semi-consciously when I am doing something not work-related (like exercising, cooking or sleeping). In the past, this has had some pretty good results, and I am sure most of my best ideas have started with me saying “I had a dream last night…”
Not long ago, I was having a conversation with someone about farming fish in a lake as a means to supply food for their project here in Guatemala. Although I don’t have a lot of experience in fish farming, an alarm bell was sounding in the back of my mind in regards to potential pollution issues from the fish farm, particularly as the body of water in question was quite close to the river that runs through the property. We talked about different ideas for a while, and then I put the topic aside to do some further research on later. I never got around to researching in any detail, however a few days later I woke up with the word “Aquaponics” in my head. It’s a curious connection for me, as the only time I have ever before come across Aquaponics was about 6 months ago at a party, when a friend was telling me about her boyfriend’s plan to build a small Aquaponics system in their backyard. At the time I remember thinking that the idea was quite novel, but really who wanted to have to catch and clean fish for eating on a regular basis?
From what I could remember of the conversation (which was had over a couple of glasses of wine), I knew that Aquaponics was a combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics that formed a more or less closed system. As I ate breakfast, pondering over the idea of Aquaponics, I started thinking about malnutrition in Guatemala – which is a very large problem here. At 49.3% for children under 5, Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world (among rural populations, the figure is as high as 70% for children under the age of 5) (Source: United Nations World Food Program). From what little I knew, Aquaponics could provide a source of fish (protein) and fresh vegetables (vitamins and minerals) – so if the system could be built at a minimum cost and designed to have minimum maintenance, it could provide a great source of nutrition for poor rural communities (and the system does not have a negative environmental impact, especially compared with traditional hydroponic or fish farming practices!).
So, excited by the possibility of a new system that we could use in Project Seres I began researching in earnest. Thanks to the internet, I found that I wasn’t the first to have this idea – although from what I have since learnt about the potential applications in developing countries (it ticks all the boxes above in terms of maintenance and cost), I am very surprised that there aren’t more projects working in this area. The best source of information that I have found was by Travis Hughey, who in 2005 published a manual on how to build a low-cost, low-maintenance aquaponics system specifically for application in developing countries – a system he calls “Barrel-Ponics”. I have since been in touch with Travis and have a copy of this manual downloaded onto my computer, which I spent all last night reading through and getting more and more excited – I really believe this can make a positive difference here in Guatemala!
I have also had a change of heart around my initial reaction to the backyard fish farm. As a rule, I generally do not eat anonymous seafood due to the un-sustainability of the fishing industry. And I also believe that if you are going to eat meat, you should at least be willing to go through the process from beginning to end (which includes catching, killing and cleaning of the animals) out of respect to both the animals and the people whose job it is to regularly do this for our eating pleasure. So on a personal note, this offers me a way in which I can go back to eating fish now and then if I want.
So now it is time for me to build an Aquaponics system and familiarize myself with how this works. I have started convincing a friend of mine to let me convert his fishpond into “an amazing wealth of fish and strawberries” – I am not sure why I thought that was a convincing line, but it seems to be working! So with a test site located, a manual in hand and ‘mucho ganus’, it’s time to get my hands dirty. I will keep posting progress on the blog as I go – the good, the bad and the ugly – and hopefully in the next few months we will see a system emerge that can be taken out and taught in rural villages.
Fingers cross, stay tuned!
Corrina
