Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

G'day guys I'm from Sydney Australia.

I've got an idea in my mind, but there's a few pieces of information I need before I can take this idea any further.

I'd like to open a food-store, only there's a catch.

- I want to deliver affordable healthy food for my local residents.
- I want the food to be produced locally - in an Urban environment.
- I want my local Schools to be involved.
- I want to hire people on welfare.
- I want to have the community involved in the production of food.
- I don't want to profit from this business.
- The business will profit the employees and the residents.
- I'd like to see the project expand and grow larger.

Eventually I'd like to see the project taken over by my local Government & run by our community.

My options are limited to Aquaponic and hydroponic set ups due to the density of buildings & the cost of land.

I do not have any experience with either, so I've taken it on board and I'll be setting up the first system on my balcony over the next few weeks to learn as much as I can and get a hands on feel for what you guys are into.

I've worked in Supermarkets for the last 7 years.
I'd like to give back to people what I helped take away from them.

An affordable healthy diet, in fact I'd like to deliver vegetables to my community at half the price the Supermarkets can.

I know from my experience I shouldn't get more than 1,000 customers in the location I desire.
Unless I'm super popular in which case we will open a crowd funded project to increase food production and cross that bridge when we come to it.

With the boards help, I'd like to determine if this project is achievable on paper before we start to discuss the logistical & legal issues which will surely arise.

1. Has anyone done anything similar? I cannot find anything
2. Has anyone got information on yields produced from Aquaponic set ups & approximately how much on average in weight you will produce under different environmental factors?
3. I'd love the boards in-put and ideas on this project, if there's something you think will improve the project please feel free to make suggestions.

Kind regards.

Rohan Janssen

Welcome to the forum Rohan.

First off, I'm not sure what sized test system you'll be building but be certain your balcony can support the weight your going to be putting on it.

Have you looked at Growing Power in the US.

You might be able to utilize land that is vacant without having to buy property. People also want to be able to grow their own produce and supplying plant starts to families that can't afford them is another option that lets you affect more people without needing more space. Some cities or organizations will pay to have plant starts grown so that they can be given away or sold at reduced costs to people that fit their criteria. I'm not sure how often this goes on but the city I know of, put out for bids each year and the winning bid was about 10,000 (this was in the early 90's). This might be a way to get recognition as being legitimate and get some help to find growing space.

The kids might make a good distribution network taking produce back to their families.

Cheers

Hey Scotty,

Thanks for the reply.

We have quite a robust building, we will be getting the balcony checked out by an engineer regardless though, as with all projects I agree with you, safety comes first.

Growing Power in the US seems to offer workshops, which I can neither attend to the location nor afford at first glance.

I'm sure I will learn a lot from this forum and through my own work, I don't want to invest too much money into this project as it may bite me in the ass later if it doesn't work out.

Cheers for the reply !

Thanks for welcoming me to the community,

Kind regards,
Rohan

Hi Rohan, do you already have the local government sustainability and community wellbeing officers on board? Are you hooked in with your local community gardens and neighbourhood houses? You need the support and enthusiasm of these groups for a project like this to grow and thrive.

I suggest that you set up your pilot system and grow some fish and plants out for a full season so that you get an appreciation of what it takes to make a system work and keep everything alive. Its not necessarily a low cost or low maintenance way of growing food, and quality fish food for carnivorous fish such as trout is neither cheap nor environmentally sustainable. However it is great fun and worthwhile to grow your own food, and very rewarding too.

Check out Jayendra's Baw Baw Community Garden and Yarragon Cafe threads for community AP projects here in Gippsland, Victoria. They are more educational and inspirational than an attempt to produce low cost food for the masses. There are also some vegie box businesses starting to take off here - I can send you some links if interested. Also check out CERES in Melbourne for a successful privately run inner city community garden and food enterprise - they have AP set up, but not sure if it was running when I dropped in a couple of months ago.

fortunately you won't have to worry about making a profit,
the food growers don't make the money.

But seriously, I wish you well there are lots of great ideas and systems here.

but IMO the best way is to keep it simple.

What sort of budget do you have in mind for this?

A though: why not create a system that is sustainable by the community and not involve the government. It seems the plan adds an unnecessary bureaucracy layer. Allow the leadership to develop from within the participant community. Otherwise, I will be interested in following your progress with this!

There's a definite trade off when dealing with bureaucracy and certainly going the community route to make it self sustaining is great, an interested, stable and motivated community is what you're after, obtaining the leadership from the participants gives you a good start on this.

Start small and learn from your experience.