Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR8UIfHmldY

I tought it's quite interesting for anybody who's tinking of urban farming, don't worry about the 115 trainee(internship) working for GrowPower, just leave a thread on the forum and you can get an army of volunteer (especially in an urban scenario)

Instant army, just add fish water.

Grow power actually hosts a fry supply, as well... I was hoping to pull from closer to home. If I cannot, I'll be calling him. I think the 'organic out-growth' of the organization, and his willingness to 'intern folk' as a method of spreading the information, get one's hands wet before experimenting... it has a place, and I think he's quite a 'civic member' to have in any urban environment.

I think Sweetwater is off to a good start. Again... the mono culture breaks my heart. It seems, and with a 'business model'- it could be the best one can expect- Lettuces and greens are a superb market, but making more food be as 'low carbon footprint' would make me happier.

Of course, all businesses are trying to make me happy, aren't they?

That video has been around for a while now. I know because its one of the main ones that got me interested in AP

I seem to remember last time I made comments about sweetwater not looking at all viable to me, people thought I was being harsh and negative.. Well seems like sweetwater aren't viable.. Multi-story growing like this indoors just isn't viable long term, and others are building similar systems, indoor multi-story, under lights lettuce growing.

Sweetwater were projecting that they'd have 25 people employed at the end of 2012, it was part of the loan deal they got, but they only had 2.35 people employed, and their whole operation is now turned off as of Jan 2013 so they can't pay back their $250,000 loan. Now they are looking at moving solely into the training side of things.. You do have to wonder a little about the training side if they have been unsuccessful on the commercial side, what are they teaching??

http://bayviewcompass.com/archives/13507

What not to do :-)

Yep, they come and go these projects. Part of the reason so many are sceptical.

Unfortunately its the training by people like this that lead others into false hopes and dreams.

There's been two separate thesis studies done on Growing Power & Sweetwater... both concluded that they were not commercially viable...

Here's Elisha Goodmans... http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j ... 7112,d.dGI

I'll try and find the other...

Nice link!

You don't have to do a thesis to figure out that it was not a viable project. A middle school student who is able to do simple arithmetic would be able to work it out. We will be unrealistic and say the fish cover the overhead other than employee salaries.

10 people at $10/hour for a 40 hour week for 52 weeks comes to $208k paid out for $250k of a forgivable loan with 4 more years on it. Not to mention at a $1 a head margin on lettuce they would have had to produce 4,000 heads of lettuce per week just to cover employee salaries.That's a
Minimum of 25k pot system.

Year two 25 people at $10/hr 40 hour week for 52 weeks. That's $520k meaning an expansion to a 50k pot system just to cover payroll. You have now paid out $728k for a 250k capital flow. With three more years to go and needing to hire more people.

Skip to all 50 people employed and your at just over a cool million bucks a year. Thats cranking out 20k heads of lettuce per week.

How they planned on getting to the final goal of 45-50 people I have no idea. The production required to just cover the salaries should have been an immediate red flag to whomever was supposed to be screening this loan application.

Sure there are other crops that they could grow but $1/head margin on lettuce at that volume is being generous to begin with. Maybe some of the employment is eliminating the electric bill by having employees power everthing by a bike powered generator...

It would have been more economically viable to hire one guy, and go back year after year complaining bout the economy and paying the loan due for that year (70k loan payment + 20k salary x 5 years = 450k paid back total to get a loan no bank would ever issue).