In society today, it has become so easy to be completely disconnected with our food supply that many of us don't even know what country it came from. That scares me a little bit. I would have to say that my passion is getting others involved in creating their own aquaponic gardens.
Knowing that all over the world, people are starting to grow food for themselves and re-establishing that connection is what drives me forward every day! I am delighted every time someone new asks me how to get started and I can't even pronounce the names of some of the countries ALL OVER THE WORLD where I have helped people to do just that. My friends, that truly is a happy feeling deep down inside.
Let’s face facts. The world today is so completely nuts that it will take something massive to make an impact at this point. Let’s take a quick look at how aquaponic gardens are beginning to make their mark, shall we? Every day thousands of trucks, trains, airplanes and cargo ships carry untold amounts of food, all over the world. On the surface this seems like a wonderful thing! We can grow food halfway around the world and still have it on our dinner plates. Great! Right? In some ways, sure … it’s an amazing thing that mankind can do that now, wonderful.
How much fuel goes into transporting those crops thousands of miles around the globe? How much time do those crops spend slowly decomposing once they have been picked? That’s okay though because we have all kinds of chemicals we can spray on it to ‘keep it fresh’ for the journey. Fact is, NO! IT”S NOT OKAY!
Aside from those chemicals seeping into our food supply, building up over time in our bodies and generally taking away our sense of good health & aside from all the fuel being consumed in the process, it’s not so bad right? Well, there is all the food that get destroyed because it doesn't ‘look’ good enough for the grocery stores once it gets there, and there is all the food that gets thrown into dumpsters because it sat too long on the shelves. Oh, let’s not forget all the ‘amazing’ stuff they put into those foods before they hit the shelf too! (so they can last longer…)
Why am I passionate about sharing how simple aquaponic gardening can be? If you really need to ask that still, I suggest you reread the last couple of paragraphs. Why aquaponics over soil gardening? Well, that’s a whole different topic.
What I hope to do, is to help grow the global aquaponic community, so that we can all have healthier foods, grown locally. The amount of water required for an aquaponic garden is only 2-10 percent of what it takes for soil based crops, that means fresh food for a lot of dry areas where people right now are starving. ANYONE can grow crops with aquaponics, I know because I've made a lot of mistakes along the way and it still works! Sure, maybe you don't have a big yard and can't grow all of your own food, so what? I don’t grow all of what I eat yet, but when I eat what I grow … I feel pretty darn good about it!
I personally have made an aquaponic garden as small as 18 inches across by 32 inches in length and it still grows. It’s great when we can afford the time, cash & space to build a really large and beautiful aquaponic greenhouse but don't wait until that point to get started. Make a garden from a storage tote, make one out of from a 18 gallon water bottle, convert an old fish tank, run garden beds to filter that old koi pond out back … just get started!
If you need any advice, I’m always happy to lend a hand. Subscribe to me on YouTube @ JT Bear and check out the video library. If you still have any questions just send me a message or comment under one of the videos and I‘ll get back to you as soon as I can! Blessed be & many happy harvests to you!
I tried making aquaponic but I can't perfected the timing of the bell cyphon yet
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