What a cheap price tag on produce does not include is the till agriculture involved which is decimating the soil. Erosion, artificial fertilizers, and toxic pesticides are pillars supporting this cheap produce that arrives on consumers’ shelves. In protest of modern-day agriculture, a handful of farmers and consumers flock to new opportunities to eat local, sustainable foods: aquaponics.

Aquaponics performs a mathematical miracle, making one equal two. The system combines aquaculture—the raising of fish for consumption—and hydroponics—the growth of plants in only water—into one (hence the name), creating a self cleaning and fertilizing system to grow plants and fish (Vasdravanidis et al., 2022). As farmers input fish feed, they can harvest both fish and plants. Plants can now be grown vertically too, which allows for small spaces to produce an abundance of crops.

In March, I had the opportunity to tour one of the only small aquaponic farms in the UK: Smart Greens Farm. Oliver O'Dell, who runs the farm, is a former town/city manager in both the public and private sector who decided to start Smart Greens UK in 2014, with the goal of providing fresh and sustainable produce to locals. Smart Greens Farm practices no-till and no-pesticides aquaponic farming—and his local customers love it. To them eating local food is pleasurable and worth the upcharge. O’Dell told me about how broader consumers are not ready to pay the extra price for sustainability as modern day consumers have lost touch of how food is made and its real cost.

Sustainability, pleasure, and access to food is a complex topic. To some, sustainability has become synonymous with high prices and privilege. This concept is perpetuated because sustainable food is only accessible to those with excess wealth. Rather than blindly criticize those that choose to eat affordably, our society must detach sustainability from privilege. Making sustainable, local, healthy foods more available to consumers prevents individuals from having to choose between the environment and making food last to the end of the month. Achieving this is not an easy task, but it is one that can begin in developed nations that have abundance to invest in their citizens.

Variety of mustard greens grown in the aquaponics system

Aquaponics checks all the boxes for the looming crisis: saves water, protects soils, reduces use of pesticides, and uses up less space. The UK is a small, island country compared to its European neighbors. With less arable land, it makes sense how food must be imported to keep costs down for the everyday consumer. Vegetables are imported from other countries in order to supplement the grocery stores. Tomatoes from Spain, cauliflower from Germany, or potatoes from France. While England cannot grow horizontally, it is time to begin growing vertically.

Investing in this domestic produce can allow for consumers to live healthier lives eating locally grown produce, while also being much more sustainable than mass agriculture. Investment in this future of farming can bring prices down and make aquaponic farming comparable to traditional farming in affordability. Aquaponics is primarily more expensive to start up than traditional farming and is more limited in the types of crops that it can produce. Without soil, it is difficult to grow root vegetables and similar relatives. Aquaponics is not claiming to replace traditional farming, but instead trying to relieve the burden farming is having on the environment. It performs extremely well in locations like cities with low amounts of water and arable land, and is able to reduce the impact that farming has on the land. The language of investment is intentional as aquaponics takes a few years to be equally profitable, but has significantly lower operating costs compared to traditional farming methods. Proponents of aquaponics are simply asking to begin integrating aquaponic farming into modern day agriculture. With it, these farms will prove the proof of concept and show how aquaponics is a reliable and sustainable way of farming.

More about Oliver O’Dell

Aquaponic farming is not a flashy life. O’Dell leases a quarter acre of land from a primary landowner. From flooding water sumps on Christmas Day to massive trout die-offs due to record high temperature, owning a farm is not easy. But O’Dell finds meaning in building a rapport with his customers, to the point where they offer a key and invite him to place their weekly “veg-box” on their kitchen counter while they are away. O’Dell shows how growing closer with how our food is made creates a new relationship that is not found at supermarkets. Customers can be surprised by the contents of their veg-box each week, keeping their diets varied, and find new recipes and nutrition facts in O’Dell’s weekly newsletter.

Reflection:

Not only does aquaponics offer a future for sustainable farming, it rewrites agriculture for consumers in ways that cannot happen in contemporary urban landscapes. It brings the consumer back into consumption and it brings eating back into becoming an agricultural act. As emphasized in the Milken Family Foundation mission statement, aquaponics can be the catalyst to bring communities together and create more satisfying lives eating local, sustainable foods.

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