Hormone free meat!!!!!! well not really

Hormones in food - Antibiotic food

Now a days with every agri business claiming one thing after another, the hormone issue is one fraught with confusion. While the government has acknowledged the rBST growth hormone to be of concern, they fail to recognize the implications of other so called "natural" growth hormones used and still  taught to farmers today. The most humorous blogs/websites are put up by the government, filled with hypocritical statements like

there has been no evidence that has shown that animals treated with growth hormones are a threat to human health. 

And on the same page write 

Reducing exposure with your food intake

Although growth hormones and antibiotics are considered safe for food production in Canada, consider the following tips to reduce your exposure to these additives:

• Organic foods have fewer traces of antibiotics than non-organic foods.
• Since beef cattle are the only animals that contains growth hormones, consider choosing organic beef instead of conventional beef when you can.
• Thoroughly wash all vegetables and fruit for thirty seconds under running tap water to minimize the intake of antibiotics.

This is all off of the (eat right ontario) website located here 

http://www.eatrightontario.ca/en/Articles/Farming-Food-production/Hormones-and-antibiotics-in-food-production.aspx

And if you would like to look at the alberta agriculture and rural development page, you will clearly see what is being used and taught to "farmers", why they use it and there so called "benefits" in production.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/beef11691#Introduction

Growth hormones in food

Whether or not these "farmers" are required to state they have used "natural" or synthetic hormones is a whole other question. This should be brought up any time you speak to a farmer, be informed, if you feel any type of pull back or beating around the bush, say thank you and walk away. People who practice good farming methods are happy to talk about what they grow with ( I know I am ).

The old time farmers from the industrial age are lost in a world of herbicides/pesticides/ growth hormones/antibiotics/ and petroleum. IMO This should not be called farming, this is a disgrace to the name. All it has done is wrecked our land, seeds and health, giving rise to corporations like Monsanto and Dow chemical. 

Farmers??  you dont deserve the name.

This post will be more towards growth hormones with a follow up on antibiotic use.

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I Wish I Was a SAHM

Or a mom or had the intent of being a stay at home wife.  Im not though which is why I had to give up.  Husband and I talked about my stress levels for a while.  Made my own laundry detergent, deodorant, household cleaners, vacuum powder...and so on.  I was doing this on top of school work and my internship. Holy crap.

I broke down and bought some Pine Sol mostly because I found that most green cleaners arent green at all! While I loved using baking soda, lets be honest.  It really is hard to rinse the fridge or the floors.  My time I used to make detergent is now spent studying and I have a little more me time.  Oh how fun life is again!  Yep we bought some detergent for the first time in almost a year.

It is nice to be able to relax when I get home.  I get to spend time with husband, play with my fur babies, and  just...you know...be me.  Now when I came onto the whole idea of having a child, I thought about buying my own diapers and the whole nine yards.  You know what?  I think I will just do a diapering service.  Besides it was never about the cost but about reusing.  When it comes time for daycare, I could always check and see if they take All In Ones

No more walking everywhere.  I need to invest in a car mostly because all the good jobs are quite a ways away.  It is going to be 101 outside Friday and its a two mile walk to my interning clinic.  Perfect example right there...oh hell naw.

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公開徵求志工 Volunteer Wanted

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????????????????????????????????????????????????5%???????????????????5%???????????????????5%?????????????????????????????... ??????????????????????????????????????

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!!

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Subterranean Heating and Cooling

Installing a Subterranean Heating and Cooling System

Last night CTD commented on my post "If I could design a system from scratch...," saying:

You may have already thought about a subterranean heating and cooling system, but if not, heres a couple of links. Im considering one of these for its year-round efficiency (off grid if I can get the math to work out) and possibly a small rocket mass as a supplement for those really cold stretches...

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=672EC08E98ABA0FD
http://www.sunnyjohn.com/indexpages/shcs.htm

Such cool stuff! The subterranean heating/cooling system is primarily three layers of Underground Air Circulation Tubing (UACT), 4 inch thin-walled perforated drainage tubes (less than $6 per 10 foot length at Home Depot). The tubes are spaced about every 2 feet horizontally in each layer, and the UACT layers are each a foot deep. The tubes are connected to a plenum (e.g., a 55-gallon drum) at each end, and a fan blows the entire volume of the greenhouse through the underground tubing every 10 minutes.

During days when it gets toasty in the greenhouse, air enters the system warm and moist and comes out cool and dry, leaving the moisture and heat energy in the soil. When the greenhouse air gets colder than the soil (e.g., winter nights), the fan pumps cool air through the ground and it comes out warmer and moister.

John Cruickshank of SunnyJohn.com says hes created greenhouses in Zone 4 (average minimum temperature of -25 degrees F) that maintain a Mediterranean environment all year round without any supplementary heat.

I still want to include a rocket mass heater. One, I like to burn things (wood). Two, I like to cook things (pizza...). Three, my greenhouse isnt a double-glazed marvel of heat retention, so it will probably need supplemental heat, even though Im in Zone 7 (average minimum temperature of 5 degrees F).

Here are some sketches of how I think I could have both a Subterranean Heating and Cooling System (SHCS) and a Rocket Mass Heater (RMH).

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Lett uce now consider the Leafy Greens

Doesnt that have a nice ring to it.... And for Aquaponic converts, so it should. Although we can grow anything to perfection except root crops (and I havent given up on those yet) LEAFY GREENS are where Aquaponics excel to the extreme. Eight weeks to maturity, and tasting like pure gold, they really do make us feel just a bit proud when visitors come to find out what A/P is all about and we watch their eyes pop as they see a mass of fresh, crisp, beckoning lettuce.

Of course then we get a chance to boast just a little, with gems like "eight weeks" or "yep, all of those unusual plants growing right down to the end of the greenhouse are different types of lettuce as well". Because we grow heirlooms like they are weeds in A/P.

So because its spring soon here in the Wide Brown Land, its time to look at what is happening on the www regarding our Leafy Greens....

A pretty good reminder can be found at about dot com

there are all of the loose leaf varieties....

And of course the Cos Which are an absolute dream to grow under Aquaponics

Here is a PDF file I sure hope youll enjoy from 2007

Of COS theres more

and from the Lettuce & Herb Kitchen...

Did you notice in the pdf file the section on Black Soldier Fly. No? Well you might want to go back....

Meanwhile on the other side of the biggest pond in the world....The US of A





And I love this - the Cos Lettuce pushed the Over head lights out of the way....


When to Plant?

How about Cos Leaf Wrap... Just for the kitchen dabblers...

Final words come from Singapore and we are so glad to have them on board.

OK Guys n Gals Until Next Time
Be kind to your plants and your widdle fishies....
Ozzie

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Water Storage

As water becomes more difficult to obtain we are going to be forced into looking for better solutions.
This is a section of a modular water wall.

I did a quick search and others are also thinking along these lines and some of the walls are very decorative.  The idea of free or cheap drums is admirable but they are not large enough nor are they aesthetic.
 
Its time to think outside the box.  What about large reservoirs of water under our houses or hidden within our walls which would also be used to moderate temperature with its thermo-mass.

I used to live in a very old house in downtown Tucson.  The walls were built of adobe and they were nearly 3 feet thick.  The hot Tucson summers were quite bearable due to the thermo-mass of these walls even though I had no air conditioning.

If we were to build houses like this our energy and water consumption would both drop.  A stucco finish would make the walls look like any other house except for thick walls, and the comfort would be amazing.  This water could be collected during the rainy season and used later in the hot dry summer months to grow food and ensure a beautiful cooling landscape.

.
A family of five uses  about 1 acre foot (about 325,000 gallons) or (1225 m³) of water a year.  So saving water from your roof top may only make a small difference, but small differences add up.   Right now it costs about $1000 to process that much water from waste water or to build a new reservoir.  

Desalination has been done in other parts of the world and California is going to build a desalination plant in San Diego capable of 50 million gallons (189000 m³) a day.  But the cost is probably going to be twice the cost we are used to.  There are also concerns that the plant will kill fish, but efforts are being incorporated that should solve this problem.

In total fifteen desalination projects using reverse osmosis are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay.  In the past many other desalination plants have been closed due to the high cost of operation.  The plant will use an enormous amount of energy -- about 38 megawatts, enough to power 28,500 homes.  
The efficiency works out to be about 3 kWh for 1 m³or 88 gallons / kWh fresh water.  Sounds like a lot of water, but the reality is this will only provide about 7 percent of the total water needs of San Diego County.   

Another problem I see is that this is going to be privately owned.  I would prefer to see communities own their own water source.

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Oh dear Where did Friday go

Apologies my friends, weve had a mishap.  Our Bobcat got bogged in the mud. Since the flood weve had a few nights of rain and the ground we normally can work/drive on had taken all the wet it could handle. So my mate drove into a scrubby area to remove an old motor and when he went to turn the bobcat she dug into the ground and the mud just swallowed half of each of the four wheels.

Well we tried for three hours to get it out with a 2 ton car jack and lots of timber, then we had the guy at the back of our place with his tractor to give us a hand. They have trotters and their own training track. But the tractor was only two wheel drive with a small motor and it didnt even budge the bobcat. eventually we got the thing out and finished the work but by then Friday was a gone chicken.

So here I go with the new WEEKEND Issue... Please Enjoy:



Upscale, Democratize, and Internationalize Aquaponics

(Event is in the planning stage; more details coming soon!)

Sweet Water Organics announces it’s very first winter workshop. Here’s your chance to discuss sustainable agriculture with some of the best and brightest creative minds. Participating organizations include:

University of Wisconsin’s School of Fresh Water Science

Columbia University School of Architecture and Urban Design

Stirling University and Aquaponics UK

The Aquaponics Source, organizer of AquaponicsCommunity.com

Milwaukee Department of Community Development

What: Winter Workshop One

When: Friday, January 21 - Sunday January 23

THE REST OF THE DETAILS INSIDE...

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Kaiser Permanente to "Walk the Walk" with Hawaii island school garden network

Community to come together on Martin Luther King, Jr. "day of service" to promote healthy living.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 11:40 AM HST

Kaiser Permanente Hawaii physicians and clinic staff will set aside their sterile medical garb, equipment and working environment and, instead, get down and dirty working in the dirt - volunteering in Hawaii Island school gardens to celebrate the 25th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. "Day of Service" on Monday, Jan. 17. In doing so, they hope to practice....

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Start Your Aquaponics Greenhouse Now! (WITH VIDEO)....

 

Life, the universe and everything

Taking students out of the classroom to do ‘real’ research and pairing their teachers with those working in the field is getting children enthused about science’s possibilities

It is Tuesday morning and a double-free for a group of Year 12s. But instead of lounging around the common room or catching up in the library, 30 maths, ICT and science pupils have given up their free time to look at satellite images of the River Mersey.
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Wisconsin Aquaculture Conference Planned for March
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 01/14/2011

Fish Farmers from Wisconsin and around the midwest will be meeting this winter for the 16th Annual Wisconsin Aquaculture Conference. The March 11-12 event will be held at the Country Springs Hotel & Waterpark in Pewaukee.

The conference will feature aquaponics, marketing, pond management, aeration, fish processing, economics, species breakout groups and more. Several out of state speakers are attending, including Dr. Gary Jensen, Dan Deisenroth, Dr. Robert Kim and and Henry Clifford....

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Hands-on agriculture at KI school

PAULA THOMPSON

14 Jan, 2011 03:00 AM

KANGAROO Island High School students are getting a hands-on agricultural experience through KI Community Educations Parndana campus.Agriculture teacher Trevor Bolwell said there was a working farm adjacent to the school where students were taught a broad range of subjects related to the industry.
"The kids are involved with prime lamb production and run a feed-lot, so they have to go through and work out rations," he said.
They also learn about aquaponics through a barramundi growing-out facility.
Attached to the facility is a recycling system where the waste water is transported to trays with various seedlings including herbs, spinach, beans and lettuce.

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‘Living Food BankTM’ to Provide Fresh Fish and Vegetables in Haiti
The Living Food Bank, developed by Nelson and Pade, Inc, produces fresh fish and vegetables..MORE
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VIDEO: GrowHaus in Denver Colorado - The Urban Conversion and Aquaponics...VIDEO...
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From Squidoo: My aquaponic organic garden
Could Aquaponics gardening make our wishes (at least some of them) come true? Dont we all wish to have organic food for ourselves and our family members to eat healthy and without any preservatives? Wouldnt you like to have the opportunity to go to your backyard and pickup your organic fruit and vegetables for your daily use without thinking about how much it would cost you? If the answer is yes then your wish could come true very soon. ...

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Good morning, aquapons,
 If you havent dropped by to visit our Aquaponic Gardening community lately, you might want to.  It is a bustling place with over 800 members now!
 And you now have a new option for following our activity - Hootsuite! Hootsuite is a very popular social media aggregator for monitoring Facebook, Twitter, etc. all in one place.  Now you can add our community to what you follow, and make updates directly from your Hootsuite desktop.  Just click here for simple instructions to get started.
 Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
 Sylvia
 (Hey if youre not a member...Why Not....Editor)

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( Im sure I had this shop in the Digest several months ago.....)
FARM: shop - East Londons radical experiment in food growing and community building

David Hawkins
FARM: shop in Dalston is a revolutionary new take on urban food self-sufficiency: a cafe and community hub with its own rooftop chicken coop, pigs and floating garden
    FARM: shop is a place where people can interact with farming

Just along from the new Dalston Junction train station, opposite East London standard issue billboards and a fried-chicken shack, stands the pleasing facade of a freshly revived shopfront. Yet this isnt the usual tedium of homogenized gentrification

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Afnans Aquaponics - Nothing in Particular - General Update
One Tilapia missing. It was eight, today only seven left. Need to investigate what happen, I dont think cats will take fish in water. Previous batch survive and none was missing.(VIDEO)

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 HOW TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS -
Your business can be a daunting task, because most of the work requires special skills and tones of money to invest. While you can acquire the necessary skills, money is not easy to solve the problem. However, there is a business that requires investment, and the minimum is repaid in less than a year. It called Aquaponics agriculture or Aquaponic can change your life and well.
Aquaponics includes the cultivation of vegetables with water from the aquarium. You just have to wait for the fish tank in a square, about a month to supply enough water organic nutrients for plants, so the spread....(MORE)
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Shop Growfresh Organics and More online
on Jan 15 in News | ShareThis

Growfresh Organics and More is proud to bring online Arkansas’ first and only hydroponics and aquaponics e-commerce site. Arkansas was once a pioneer in bringing aquaponics sytems into school systems in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. We are glad to now bring information and products for these fantastic systems to the retail market online and in the store at 2600 South Zero Street in Fort Smith. If you are just now learning about hydroponics and aquaponics or if you are a seasoned veteran, we...MORE

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Well I caught up.... Sorry again for the delayed report, but thats farming I guess. If it can go wrong....
See you soon, Take Care....
A U S S I E

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OMG a Day Late

This has been a super busy weekend and we still have so much work to catch up on. But not a problem Itll get done: Lets look at what is in front of me at the moment:

Eco-friendly aquaponics produce fresh, quality foods
The Coloradoan
Grown in an aquaponic system-not hydraponic, which relies on inorganic chemical fertilizers and not aquaculture, which is a fish farming method that often ...

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My Diy Aquaponics Packages To Make Your Own Aquaponics System
Aquaponics may be a totally new technique of gardening. Now dont desire the newest and simplest way to maximize your own gardening potential?

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My Diy Aquaponics Kits To Create Your Own Personal Aquaponics System
By knsmith
Aquaponics may be a whole new way of gardening. Now dont wish modern and best way to maximize your own gardening potential?
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My Diy Aquaponics Packages To Make Your Special Aquaponics System
Aquaponics is a totally new technique of gardening. Dont you desire the most recent and fastest way to maximise your own gardening possibilities?

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DIY Aquaponics
Many people wonder how they themselves can accomplish Aquaponics. Its a very simple process that will give you the fastest growing vegetables youve seen!
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It is very easy to build an aquaponics system and the results from a well planned system can be amazing. You can build a very productive system with simple and inexpensive materials. Although these systems are easy to build and operate, there are some key things you should know that can make all the difference

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you are seeking any trial Aquaponics Design you could follow then Im going to point you within the correct way. There are a lot regarding kinds of aquaponics tanks & gardens, therefore you have to determine what kind you want to select. The best way to achieve this would be to utilize a DO IT YOURSELF guide thatll walk you over the entire process

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Aquaponics

Why start an Aquaponic System – In a world where everything is done on the run and more and more people complain about their shortage of time, beginning a new hobby seems as a way of social suicide, as you will have much less time to see your family and friends . This is why many folks are quite reluctant in giving their valuable time away on new activities, particularly if that new activity is gardening.

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The Kellys experiment with Aquaponics youtube - Recipe for free ...
By admin
Unfortunately we werent too successful due to the location of the Aquaponics system. The combination of full sun and the wet roots, as the holes we drilled were too high were not ideal conditions. We will keep trying! ...
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[WATCH]: How to build a basic Aquaponics System
A basic guide on how to build your own Aquaponic system. This is sytem is based on the barrel ponic and S&S setup and was built by me in the summer of 07?.
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Hybrid grow/wicking bed - Practical Aquaponics Discussion Forum. A ...
By Jens UK
Nice to see people trying different things but with this one i think you are heading for trouble ,Dirt and aquaponics dont mix with water continually wetting the soil i think you will get anaerobic zones ...
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Fish For Aquaponics   by Ethan Mill
You need fish to have a properly functioning aquaponics system. The reason why fish are required to complete this aquaponics cycle is within the fish waste. The tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and other plants you are growing require nitrogen, which is produced by the fish waste. All aquaponics systems must have the nitrates filtered from the water or the aquaponics fish will die. The growing containers act as this filter because the plants roots take care of everything there. Plants and fish must be present in this system for The Aquaponic Nitrogen Cycle to take place.
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OK Guys and Gals - Thats a wrap
See you Soon
A U S S I E

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Look what Netflix Recommended

A Crude Awakening

Since Ive indulged in several documentaries talking about peak oil and food issues, Netflix now highlights other, similar, movies for me to consider. Todays recommendation was A Crude Awakening. This is not a comfortable film to watch, but its interesting to see that it came out in 2006 - the same year world-wide oil production peaked.

If documentary films about the screwed up food/energy/carbon situation depress you, dont watch this one. But if such documentaries energize you to live sustainably and work towards a peaceful post-oil future, then feel free to flex your brain with this particular offering.

From a film student perspective, its interesting to compare the 2006 A Crude Awakening with the 2004 documentary The End of Suburbia. The two films cover similar ground and lay out almost the same facts. But I think the 2006 film is better. More terrifying, but better.

The 2004 film End of Suburbia

When I am old and [more] gray, it will be interesting to look back and see how the reality compares to the messages we are being given circa 2011.

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SAD BLOG

This blog features Hachiko...scroll down to read about him.

Well first we are going to start about an update to what happened.

Vicky Sue...the gf of manslut.

Yeah me and thim both agree that manslut is totally using Vicky Jo.

It sucks cause Vicky Jo is really cool but dunno how to tell her...about Mary Sue. If you arent sure what I mean consult Takas blog.

EFF YOU MANSLUT. I DIDNT MIND YOU TILL NOW! NO WONDER NOBODY LIKES YOU.

anyway now for a story that is just tragic...and not about mansluts.
Its about a dog.

His name was Hachik? and he was an akita that lived in Tokyo.



Yes he has his own statue in Japan.

copied from Wiki...yeah its pretty accurate

In 1924, Hachik? was brought to Tokyo by his owner Hidesabur? Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owners life Hachik? saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting. Hachik? was given away after his masters death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachik? apparently realised that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachik? waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachik? attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachik? and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachik? treats and food to nourish him during his wait. This continued for 10 years, with Hachik? appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station.


Hachik? died on March 8, 1935. He was found on a street in Shibuya. His heart was infected with filarial worms and 3–4 yakitori sticks were found in his stomach. His stuffed and mounted remains are kept at the National Science Museum of Japan in Ueno, Tokyo.


This doesnt mean we should all go out and get Akitas though. They are a very dominant breed and will likely eat you if you arent 100% sure on what you are doing...or youre over confident. So lets just admire their beauty on here.




These dogs are HIGH on the euthanasia list...like up there with pit bulls and rotties. Im not saying never own one just be experienced...but if you do then adopt...

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Are You New to Aquaponics

If youre a newcomer to AP and are maybe wondering if it is for you and your situation, then maybe we can shed some light on the subject for you.

There are a stack of sites out there in the Weird and Wreckless,Wilderness that we call the internet and the two of us at the Digest have taken it on ourselves to bring as many as we can find for You to Digest. So please stick around and enjoy.....

Lets start with The basic flood and drain aquaponics system is the most common system

Alright, so for those who dont know, aquaponics is the combination of...

In a typical aquaponics system, water cycles through a....

Sweet Water Organics is an urban aquaponics company that raises fish

The tilapia fish are still alive and swimming and the plants that are growing in the nutrient laden water

The home DIY hobbyist could build these systems if  they understand two things. How the  AutoSiphon works and

Now that lot should keep you both busy and enthused for the next couple of days.....

See You Soon...
Aussie

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