Will Allen & Aquaponics System

Tonight my wife made dinner for a few friends and me. It was a well planned and prepared meal. She decided to have baked fish but had trouble finding affordable fresh fish. I told her that I had seen some tilapia on sale at a local supermarket, and that is what she ended up buying. It was not cheap but it was excellent the way she prepared it.

I mention this experience because despite all the talk of growing fish in urban environments like at Growing Power, you cannot find good fish at a reasonable price. I know the tilapia grown at Growing Power and other urban growing places in town go to nice restaurants that will pay a good price for fresh fish since they can sell it for a good price.

Frozen fish is still reasonable but when I looked at the back of the label and see it is from China I really cannot justify buying it. I avoid “Made In China” when I can, although it is becoming difficult. Even the fresh tilapia I see in the natural food stores in town usually comes from Ecuador.

When I asked local urban fish farmers or ‘wannabes’ why we cannot find their urban growing fish in local markets they say that Aquaponics, as it is called, is not done on a large enough scale yet to make it reliable enough for grocery stores to purchase and sell to us.

In the news surrounding Will Allen, founder of Growing Power, going to a state dinner at the White House, I heard he was purchasing a large building in the central city for an urban farm featuring Aquaponics, “cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment.”

Perhaps with more efforts like Will’s one day soon we will no longer need to ask where are all the fish?

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