Although the future of fish and fish products is favourable, plant production has an even more profitable return. Crops like herbs, salad greens, and out of season fruits and vegetables have a higher farm gate price than fish. Fish mature slower and crops AQUAPONICS THE SUSTAINABLE URBAN SOLUTION 8 reach harvest size at a faster rate with a higher biomass conversion rate (Love, Fry,
Genello, Hill, Fredrick, Li, Semmens, 2014, pp. 3).
Literature Review on Aquaponics
Aquaponics is a relatively new and expanding field of agriculture, consequently the literature available is mostly recent. The literature I chose to review addresses the need to fill gaps in research on this topic providing more insight into the practice…show more content… Followed by a specific case study of; Growing Power Inc. Aquaponics Systems, in Milwaukee Minnesota. Concluding with a thorough financial analysis of four temperate climate aquaponics systems. Focusing on the predicted financials associated with four separate systems; 750 gallons with tilapia and lettuce, 750 gallons with yellow perch and lettuce, and two up scaled systems with the same combinations of fish and lettuce in two 3,750 gallon systems each. Three out of the four systems analysed by Elisha Goodman were found to be not profitable from fish and lettuce sales alone (Goodman, 2011, p. 79). Only the larger system with two 3,750 gallon fish tanks raising yellow perch and growing lettuce was estimated to turn a profit over a…show more content… This study is based on a survey constructed by the authors and distributed online to practitioners of aquaponics. Of the 1084 respondents who completed the survey 809 met the inclusion criteria, of these the majority were from the United States, the remaining spanning the globe from 45 different countries. Included in the survey are practitioners who use aquponics for educational purposes, involved as a hobby, and commercial enterprises (Love, et al, 2014, p. 2). This study is able to show the variety of methods, produce grown, aquatic livestock raised, and feed used. This paper gives an overall picture of the aquaponics process by compiling statistical information useful to further research, AQUAPONICS THE SUSTAINABLE URBAN SOLUTION