Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok I'm unable to help myself:

and if the fish are really hungry (or bored) they can bite the bigger plants as they drape through the tank. Although if there were a few marron in the tank (we all know how they like to escape).... fly be free (oh shuzbut). Marron Pâté anyone?

freshly washed vegies and Alex says "freshly squeezed marron juice"

stop it! GF thinks i've gone nuts, laughing to myself

As much as I hate to interupt this conversation, do people like the stock standard moderator response to the posts that are sent to abc when the inventions are not really inventions? Al they do is change a couple of words to suit the particular case.

it makes it so much easier to read their responses if you already know the answer.

You are right Jamie. I knew exactly what the answer would be when I read some of the previous responses last night. It is a bit of a shame - but I think from my perspective the show lacks credibility.

So here i am out of the oop for a week and now everyone is talking about this show. Can i have a refresher. and did i read that right fish marinated in effluent. who would eat that. eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

mork n mindy get another mention..
C1

I sent an email off to the "Inventor"

Here is his response.........Chew on some of the points in this one.

Hi there Murray,

Thanks for your email and also your comments on the New Inventors website. It is great to get feedback from people who are so enthusiastic about aquaponics. I would like to take issue with some of your points below:

We recognise that there are a number of great food production systems out there in the world, including aquaponic systems such as the S&S Aquafarm which has inspired the type of gravel filter approach you mention. This type of system has inspired many people including Joel Malcolm whose backyard system appeared on Gardening Australia a couple of months back. The pea-gravel approach is a great method for back yard systems and also commercial systems in rural or peri-urban areas. We researched this approach in great detail while we were developing the Ecocity Farm.

While the type of system you describe has much merit, it is not however suitable as a genuine, commercial urban farm because the production from these types of systems is simply not high enough to be viable in a wide range of urban settings. In fact, the Ecocity Farm produces more than ten times the production per square metre compared to aquaponic systems based on gravel beds! This is one of the crucial differences that allows the Ecocity Farm to be viable in niches previously simply not possible with existing systems.

Lets face it Murray, if you are correct that systems of equal performance to the Ecocity Farm already exist, why can't all us urban dwellers simply walk down the road to our local aquaponic farm? Surely if this technology already exists as you claim, cities would already have been converted to productive food bowls! But the unfortunate reality is that 'food miles' keeps increasing every year and that only a pitiful percentage of our diet is actually produced local to where we live. We are commited to reversing this trend and making our cities more sustainable by bringing food production back into urban areas to a significant level.

We acknowledge that it is difficult to put across all the subtle differences in our system compared to other systems in a few minutes on the New Inventors. However I certainly take issue with your claim that we could 'only claim our system is an invention from a position of ignorance or deliberate deception'. I also take issue with your claim that we 'exploited the ABC and their lack of knowledge'. I can assure you that in order to appear on the New Inventors programme we had to go through a rigorous process that includes scrutiny of all patent documents and thorough research in the field of the invention to ensure genuine novelty of the design.

Thanks for entering into the debate re urban agriculture and aquaponics. I would ask of you however that you remain open minded that it may indeed be possible to make significant improvements (and hence 'invention') to the types of systems you are currently aware of.

Thanks Murray and best regards,


Andrew Bodlovich

Co-inventor Ecocity Farm

goodness, that was quick off the mark. I'm going to have to read this lot again to make sure I get it all

Another example of someone claiming credit (falsely or implied) for intillectual proprietary domain. AP is a concept not a patent. There are two basic methods.

Sperenio - Gravel Bed
Rakocy - NFT

This debate has been going on since the S&S demonstration project.

The Ecocity project looks identical to the UVI farm on a smaller scale and using tiered beds to save space. There's nothing there that is new.

Good of you to call them on it;)

They are selling a franchse so of course it will be the most compact, versatile, plant yielding system.... etc etc. But you still have to know how to raise fish;) Right?

IMHO..... no such thing as a "turnkey" AP system. Too many variables.

Did anyony pick up my post re ecocity farm's "ferris wheel" and Cumminscorp's rotary filter on the backup site? I now can't get to that site - comes up with 'critical error - cannot access'

Ooops!