Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I love how you start with:

and then jump right into the subject

I'm not sold on the fact that our polution is causing the effect on the climate that many of the pollies drum on about, many leading scientists suggest it just may be a part of the bigger cycle.

I'm more of the believer of natures cycles:


Look at some of the areas the Vikings used to farm (currently under constant ice and snow).
I'm interested to see results from some of the deep ice coring they are doing in the Antartic to see the impacts over time of thawing and freezing of the ice (over long, long, long periods). I think their aim is for 1 million year old ice core samples.

That being said, we all know less polution is better, and what we should all be striving for, but lets not get too carried away with some of the propeganda out there, there was a time when all the leading figures said the world was flat too...

In Aus we all know water is a valuable resource and we are all working on ways to save it (sprinkler bans, etc), couple this with GM, additivies, preservatives, etc, not to mention the global financial crisis, people are flooding back to the backyard garden and growing their own.

Go Aquaponics and you have meat and vege, and thus why the interest IMO...

Have you considered Quail?

Apparently they out-do most other animals in meat production (including chickens, rabbits, sheep, and cattle), fast growers, and from memory when dad used to have them they made bugger all noise. Get eggs also (very small, but many love them).

Saw a wild one running around in my back paddock on the weekend.

I have been considering giving them a go, we already have chooks for the eggs, but variety is the spice of life they say.

Ah... but I was talking pollution, in all it's forms... and the effect of pollution on ALL natural systems.... not just climate...





And so am I... but I just can't understand how any one could say that human pressure through pollution isn't a part of the problem...

The arguement doesn't preclude the fact that we might be entering another natural cycle at all... indeed if that is the case ... then the arguement against pollution and human pressures on the environment take on even more importance... as we may well be exacerbating the intensity of any natural response cycle..

That's the whole point..... and the point that seems so often forgotten...

IMO at the end of the day every red blooded organism is adding to global warming, cow burps put off ozone killing gasses, etc, etc.

And we should all be doing our bit to reduce our footprint...

I don't disagree with everything you are saying Rupe, I just disagree that the schemes to tax/fine business is the way to go, we all just need to make our own choices.

The more plasmas we buy, the more they produce...

Personally I like my TV, I don't have a plasma, I could say it's because of the energy consumption (but it's the cost too), and the propeganda does have me looking at the energy rating on any new electrical appliance that I buy. I'm into Aquaponics, and are trying to rely less on the supermarket.

It's our choices that control big business, not really the other way around, if we don't buy it, then there is no point them making it.

Maybe there should be a scheme where there goverment posts a top 100 poluters list, so we can use that as the worst offenders, and avoid buying their products, rated on:
- average energy consumption per kg of unit produced
- energy consumption per employee
- packaging kg per kg product
- packaging to landfill
- etc

I think it was in the UK, that there was such an outcry about the chemical coke was putting in either diet coke or coke zero, that they many stopped buying it, and in the end coke changed the recipe and removed the additive (proven carcinogen).

So as the saying goes, you can only control, what you control!

If we take control of what we personnaly are doing/buying, then everyone can make a difference, and that goes for emmissions, food additives, cloned food, etc.

IMO what we need is better labelling to know, what goes into the products we are buying, and maybe some sort of company energy rating (as discussed above).

If we don't buy it, big business will not make it...

Big push in the UK about "food miles" also,, buy local , fresher and not transported in huge diesel guzzling trucks.
Can't get more local that a BYAP

Good post Newfarmer...

+1, Right on

Newfarmer, the world was proven that it was a sphere by an ancient greek named Eratosthenes. Later in history, that knowledge was lost and then it was believed to be flat- only to be proven again that the world was a sphere. The truth did not change, only the perception of the truth and this is the problem with global warming- man-made or natural? changeable or beyond all hope? survivable or not? The first question doesn't really matter but the second and third certainly do.

also.... if every body lies, who's to say big businesses don't lie?
People have to make a living and if they can see a way to it, they really don't have a choice until they see another or better opportunity. I don't care what experts say about human values or "fantastic" attitudes towards understanding nature and how to act on it, Most are not self sacrificing, it takes great experience and understanding to be that altruistic.

I understand that gold is worthless if the world is dead and you can't live in it. It's just that only a few percentage of people of this world can read and write and even fewer percentage of THAT can even realize this concept.

And when things get nasty those that cant read kill the 1% or less that can realize..

Here is an article about processed and restaurant food- proves my point about how nasty this stuff really is and no surprise why more and more Americans are becoming not just overweight but obese.
The title says it all and on page 3, it likens restaurant food to "adult baby food". Yummm.... anyone hungry?


8 ways the food industry hijacks your brain
Overeating doesn't only affect people who are overweight
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31832558/ns ... ijackbrain

Something to look for in your own crops (U.S.)

Potato famine disease striking home gardens in U.S.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms, U.S. plant scientists said on Friday.
"Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States," said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York.
She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States.
"Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe's are some of the stores the plants have been seen in," McGrath said in a telephone interview.
The disease, known officially as Phytophthora infestans, causes large mold-ringed olive-green or brown spots on plant leaves, blackened stems, and can quickly wipe out weeks of tender care in a home garden.
McGrath said in her 21 years of research, she has only seen five outbreaks in the United States. The destructive disease can spread rapidly in cooler, moist weather, infecting an entire field within days.
"What's unique about it this year is we have never seen plants affected in garden centers being sold to home gardeners," she said.
This year's cool, wet weather created perfect conditions for the disease. "Hopefully, it will turn sunny," McGrath said. "If we get into our real summer hot dry weather, this disease is going to slow way down."
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceN ... 3J20090711

The water issue in my area- the bread basket of the world- is not going to get better. I copied the entire article as it is a very important assessment of our aquifer. Unfortunately, this is not the only American aquifer under threat.

The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it covers an area of approximately 174,000 mi² (450,000 km²) in portions of the eight states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.
The Ogallala Aquifer was depleted at a rate of 26 cubic km (21 million acre feet) per year in 2000, which is slightly greater than the historical discharge rate of the Colorado River. As of 2005, the total depletion amounted to 253 million acre-feet (312 cubic km). Some estimates say it will dry up in as little as 25 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer
Feds document shrinking San Joaquin Valley aquifer
California's San Joaquin Valley has lost 60 million acre-feet of groundwater since 1961, according to a new federal study. That's enough water for 60 Folsom reservoirs.
This is among the findings in a massive study of groundwater in California's Central Valley by the U.S. Geological Survey. It helps shed light on the mysteries and dangers of California's groundwater consumption, which is mostly unregulated.
According to the study, groundwater pumping continues to cause the valley floor to sink, a problem known as subsidence. This threatens the stability of surface structures such as the California Aqueduct, which delivers drinking water to more than 20 million people.
The Central Valley is America's largest farming region; it's also the single-largest zone of groundwater pumping. About 20 percent of groundwater pumped in America comes from under the Central Valley, said Claudia Faunt, the study's project chief.
In the Sacramento Valley, the study found groundwater levels have remained stable. Virtually all of the groundwater loss has occurred in the San Joaquin Valley, where aquifer levels have dropped nearly 400 feet since 1961, she said.
The current drought has aggravated this problem.
"In most years, especially in the San Joaquin Valley, the groundwater pumping exceeds the recharge," said Faunt, a USGS hydrologist. "With recent times, those groundwater levels have dropped back down close to historical lows."
The study is part of a project by the USGS to update groundwater data around the country that dates to the 1980s. USGS chose to begin in the Central Valley because the region is so important to the nation's food supply. The study took five years and cost $1 million.
California is the only state in which groundwater use is almost completely unregulated. California well owners are not required to report pumping or consumption patterns.
The study relied, in part, on indirect measurements. State monitoring wells provide a peek at regional groundwater behavior. Researchers also tapped into more than 8,500 well-drilling records dating back to 1900, as well as land-use patterns and surface water recharge data.
After 1900, when large-scale farming began in the Central Valley, water tables dropped significantly as wells were drilled to feed crops. Aquifers eventually dropped about 400 feet compared with pre-1900 levels. This was part of the impetus to build the state and federal canal systems in the 1960s that divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Switching farms to this new surface water supply allowed aquifers to recover.
Then drought came in the late 1970s, and surface water diversions were cut back, as they have been during the current three-year drought. In both periods, farmers relied more heavily on groundwater, and aquifers declined again.
Between 1961 and 2003, the period covered by the new study, groundwater levels in the San Joaquin Valley fluctuated depending on drought, Faunt said. The current drought has caused aquifers to drop again by nearly 400 feet, to near the historic low.
"Overall, there's a loss in groundwater," she said, amounting to about 60 million acre-feet since 1961.
An acre-foot of water is enough to serve two average California households for a year. That groundwater lost from the San Joaquin Valley was enough for every California household for 10 years.
One consequence has been land subsidence over vast areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The most severe drop is about 29 feet near Mendota, which occurred before the canals were built, said Al Steele, an engineering geologist at the state Department of Water Resources in Fresno.
"That's a three-story building, almost," he said.
The land generally does not recover from this subsidence, and the compacted aquifer often loses its ability to store water.
It was assumed that subsidence had stopped after about 1970. But both Steele and Faunt said it has continued because of periodic droughts.
This threatens the 444-mile California Aqueduct, built in part to address groundwater shortages in the San Joaquin Valley.
As the Associated Press reported last week, officials recently learned that the canal may be subsiding due to modern groundwater pumping. As land subsides, the canal drops with it. This slashes the canal's water capacity by creating low spots, which reduce flow rate. It also could crack the structure.
"There's incomplete data that shows subsidence during periods when there is increased groundwater pumpage is alive and well," Steele said. "It's still occurring."
He said Caltrans land survey data shows highways 198 and 152 near Fresno have subsided "a number of feet" in the past four decades. How much the canal has subsided is unclear.
To find out, DWR hired USGS to monitor the canal by satellite.
The new USGS study also includes a mathematical modeling tool that can help water officials manage groundwater. This could help target the best locations for new groundwater banking projects and also could prevent land subsidence.
Officials could use the model to determine where and when groundwater pumping most threatens the canal. The state could then manipulate surface water delivery in those areas to prevent groundwater pumping.
Another option might be to stop farming in threatened areas.
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2020696.html


Readers who are interested in the full USGS report can obtain it for free as a pdf at www.usgs.gov The citation is USGS Professional Paper 1766, 225 pages.

Monsanto is raising their ugly head on wheat again.
For full story, click on link.

Biotech leader Monsanto jumps back into wheat
KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - Five years after shelving a controversial biotech wheat product, Monsanto Co said on Tuesday it is jumping back into the wheat business, paying $45 million to acquire WestBred LLC, a specialist in wheat germplasm.
Monsanto said in the near-term, the transaction will apply Monsanto's breeding tools to Montana-based WestBred's germplasm to develop higher-yielding varieties for U.S. wheat farmers.
WestBred is a small company with $8.5 million in revenues, but its wheat germplasm is seen serving as the foundation for the development of biotech traits in wheat that could ultimately be very profitable for Monsanto, officials said.
Monsanto will focus on making wheat plants more drought tolerant, more efficient in the use of nitrogen and higher yielding, said Carl Casale, Monsanto executive vice president of strategy and operations.
No commercial transgenic wheat currently exists in world markets due to opposition by consumer and environmental groups in many countries.
Monsanto, which is known for its market strength in development of genetically modified soybeans, corn, cotton and other crops, walked away from development of a "Roundup Ready" herbicide-tolerant spring wheat product in early 2004.
The company's decision came amid complaints that export markets would shun U.S. wheat if biotechnology was introduced to the key food crop. Indeed, opposition to biotech crops, including wheat, remains in many countries.
Winning approval in Japan for biotech wheat remains a hurdle for commercialization, for instance. Europe is also largely opposed to biotech crops.
Still, U.S. wheat acres have been declining in recent years as farmers shift to more profitable crops. And several wheat industry groups have recently been asking for companies like Monsanto and rival seed companies to develop better wheat seed.
"In seven of the last 10 years, global demand for wheat has outstripped production, drawing down global stocks of wheat and increasing prices consumers pay," said Casale. "Global demand is expected to grow by approximately 35 percent by 2030.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Gree ... 1620090714

I was cruising on the internet, looking for science fiction movies, when I ran across one that looked interesting and it lead me to this- I hope this is not one of those "life imitating art" moments.

Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse
Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse is a survivalist novel[1] written by James Wesley Rawles, first distributed as shareware in 1995 and first published in paperback in 1998.[2] It was most recently updated and re-published in 2009.[2] On April 8, 2009, shortly after its release, it was ranked #6 in Amazon.com's overall book sales rankings[3], #1 in Contemporary Fiction, and #1 in the Thrillers category.[4]
Set in the near future amidst hyperinflation[5] and a catastrophic global economic collapse[6], Patriots tells the story of a group of survivalists that flee riots and chaos in metropolitan Chicago to a survivalist retreat that they have prepared near Bovill, Idaho.[2] One reviewer referred to it as "The most dangerous novel in America."[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots:_ ... g_Collapse

The other thing I ran across shows just how competitive (for food sources) and dangerous our sweet little pets can be. I hope we never have to deal with the above scenario but if we do, this will be an issue for us as well. I knew very well that large stray dogs would be a dangerous threat (they will kill and eat smaller dogs)- maybe even more some than humans but I didn't know that they baited humans. This really scary!!!!!


Wild Dogs Pose Post-TEOTWAWKI DangerNow the reason I'm up this late and can't sleep is the dogs. I understand pack mentality and a pack of dogs scares me more then a pack of wolves. I have been studying the woods and wildlife my whole life. This is how the dogs will form packs, an alpha male will take control of the pack with a beta male as second in command, the packs will range from 6 to 100 dogs depending on the food supply.
This scenario, I read years ago of a pack like this had 45 dogs and this was how they attacked people. The alpha picked a friendly looking female like a collie. This is the decoy dog. As you are walking in the woods, the collie approaches and draws your attention, as the packs circle you for the kill. When the pack sneaks up to striking distance, they will attack and so will the decoy. I'm talking lighting fast 45 dogs coming at you. How many rounds does your clip have?
...You see when the riots and the death in the city is happening the dogs will learn to fed on the bodies then in turn will acquire the taste for humans. Now you have a pack of wild dogs who consider you and your loved ones as food. They have no fear of man and will kill you to insure their own survival. Now, I'm not trying to scare you and sell fear. I am telling you that this will happen if the chaos of TEOTWAWKI occurs. You'll have to learn to kill dogs and cats on sight. Period. This is not an option.
http://www.webpal.org/a_reconstruction/ ... h/dogs.htm