Part III - Aquaponics in New England

Part III of Aquaponics in New England discusses how aquaponics can fuel a significant increase in the region's food production. A PDF of the entire paper (Parts I-III) can be downloaded here, including a full list of sources referenced by footnotes. 

Help Scale Up Local Food Production

Scaling up refers to significantly increasing food production to a level well above the status quo, dramatically altering the ratio of imported to in-state/region produced food

 

Why Scale Up?

Aquaponics offers the potential to scale up local food production for Massachusetts and New England. But first, why is scaling up production important to the region? As discussed previously, locally produced food tends to produce less GHGs. It also provides an opportunity for local employment, helps to reinvest money in the state or local community, and preserves open space and rural character of the region, supporting tourism and real estate values. Local food often tastes better, too, because varieties are cultivated for their flavors. In contrast, most commercial varieties are cultivated for their ability to withstand the assault of freezing, packing, and shipping hundreds or thousands of miles.

In addition to growing demand for local food, climate change presents a major economic argument for increasing local food production. Most of the extremely high risk areas for water stress in the Tetra Tech study are in America’s major agricultural areas: the Great Plains and Southwest, including California.¹³ Globally, climate change will have an overall detrimental effect on agriculture, too.¹⁰ This means prices for imported food will...
likely rise. Having substantially more food produced within our region will help insulate us from these costs. Much like the country as a whole seeks increased energy independence, so should we seek increased food independence.

How to Scale Up

For a number of reasons, it appears that traditional farming and fishing are not well suited to scale up production. Unfortunately, the current economics of farming (including aquaculture) in Massachusetts does not provide a thriving income. US Department of Agriculture data shows that just over 15% of Massachusetts farms made more than $50,000 in sales in 2007; fully 64% made less than $10,000 in sales.¹⁹ On average, Massachusetts farm owners’ net revenue was only $23,700, roughly equivalent to the 2010 federal poverty level for a family of four.^1,20  Perhaps this is why over half of farm owners have another primary occupation.¹⁹

(this corresponds to national figures, showing that the majority of farm operators’ household income comes from off-farm sources; See Source 21).

Compounding matters, Massachusetts has some of the most expensive agricultural land in the country, averaging $12,000 per acre. That is lower than only New Jersey ($13,800) and Rhode Island ($15,300) and miles above the national average of $2,000 per acre.¹

Additionally, the water scarcity previously addressed indicates that significantly increasing traditional farming will either not be possible or will severely stress our existing aquifers and surface water. And of course those agricultural needs must compete with the need for drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. Finding enough land to meet the challenges would also be an issue. Excluding Maine, much of which was never cleared, New England states’ experienced 40-60% declines in forest cover by 1850. By the mid 20^th century the region regained the vast majority of its forests, but forests have started declining once again.²² To scale up agricultural production using traditional farming, we would sacrifice much of our cherished forests (See Figure 4).

 

The sustainability of fishing has been addressed previously. With the most popular local commercial species already over fished, scaling up could only be temporary: it would likely collapse their population and fish hauls, too.

Assessing the current economics and input needs and availability of traditional farming, scaling up of crop production with traditional farming alone seems infeasible. For fish production, the sustainability of fish populations - and the fishing industry - demands an alternative method of expansion. Alternatively, aquaponics is an excellent candidate to fuel a production expansion in New England due to its sustainability and lower input use. The economics in the region are being tested now by operations like E&T Farms, but it has been found to be profitable in countries like Australia, in tests at the University of Virgin Islands, and in select markets around the US.

Conclusion: Aquaponics Fits in New England

Aquaponics is not a silver bullet; rather it is a critical piece of the food solution. Traditional farming, especially organic farming, has many of the same benefits as aquaponics, fishing for some species is still sustainable, and both farming and fishing are cultural ways of life that define New England. Nevertheless, I think that on the whole aquaponics is a beneficial technique that can and should compete in New England. The capital costs do make the economics challenging, but we can apply many of the same innovative techniques of traditional farming, like the CSA; incorporate creative engineering designs; and utilize renewable energy generation to minimize cost.

Aquaponics fills many gaps of traditional farming and fishing: production in cities and on hazardous waste sites, year round harvests, protection against damaging weather events, and protection of native fish species. Aquaponics also has significant sustainability advantages over traditional farming, aquaculture, and hydroponics: it drastically minimizes water and land use, can produce fewer GHGs, and it does not utilize herbicides, pesticides, or insecticides. Finally, aquaponics can help fuel a serious expansion of agriculture in the region – an expansion that will help increase our food independence and insulate us from future price increases, in addition to many other benefits. 

As a life-long New Englander, I see aquaponics as a means to participate in the revival of its once thriving agricultural community, all while preserving its natural resources to the highest degree.

Sources
See a complete list of sources by downloading the PDF here.