Geoff Wilson:
Pictured above, this aquaponics farm is the result of 26 years of research at the University of Virgin Islands in the Caribbean -- and is a model for both sub-tropical and tropical aquaponics in the rest of the world. The farm produces about five tonnes of fish a year. From the fish wastes about 25 to 30 tonnes of vegetables are produced for sale each year. Geoff Wilson will explain at the AAQ annual conference how the UVI aquaponics model could be translated in Queensland - into a new market for semi-mature fish for rural pond and recirculation aquaculture growers.
AAQ committee member Geoff Wilson has been a food and agriculture journalist and communicator since graduating from agricultural college in 1957. Beginning as a livestock industry journalist he has worked in wool, dairy, horticulture, forestry and aquaculture industry journalism and communications.
He has written for most rural newspapers and magazines in Australia and New Zealand, and for a number in Asia, Europe and the United States. At various times he was news editor of “Stock and Land” and editor of “Victorian Dairyfarmer”, “Australian Dairy Foods”, “Tree Farmer”, “Australian Forest Grower” and “International Tree Crops”. Concurrently for 10 years in the 1980s Geoff was agribusiness columnist the ”The Age” daily newspaper in Melbourne.
He currently writes on urban agriculture, aquaculture, aquaponics, and hydroponics, particularly for “Aquaponics Journal” in the United States.
As a director of Nettworx Publishing Pty Ltd., Geoff Wilson is now launching “Urban Agriculture Online” as an Internet-based information service. This will publish a fortnightly online newsletter to about 2,000 editors of trade and professional journals interested in the 30 or so topics of urban agriculture. “UAO” will also have monthly, in-depth reports and two-monthly “thesis watch” reports.
Geoff is President of the Urban Agriculture Network-Western Pacific and he has convened both Green Roofs for Healthy Australian Cities and Aquaponics Network Australia – two NGOs which will hive off from the Urban Agriculture Network “parent” as soon as sufficient members are recruited. He is Australian representative on the newly-formed World Green Roof Infrastructure Network made up of 16 national green roof organizations.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Geoff Wilson was honorary executive officer of the International Tree Crops Institute, which operated in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, China, India and Fiji. He organized conferences and seminars and an exchange program of scientists and technologists between Australia and China, and between the United States and China. This voluntary work followed Geoff Wilson’s winning of the Farm Writers and Broadcaster’s/Dalgety inaugural study award for a six week study of farm forestry in Australia and New Zealand, and the 1973 Gottstein Fellowship, for an 11-week study of the American Farm Tree System in 9 states of the United States. Geoff Wilson was guest of the New Zealand government for a two-week study of the Closer Economic Relations Treaty’s effect on the New Zealand economy, and was guest of the People’s Republic of China for a six-week study of the Great Green Wall of China and the Forest Net system of agroforestry in China.
The presentation - AQUAPONICS – a new market for rural aquaculture.
Aquaponics investments rural towns and suburban shopping centres in cities in Queensland have great potential to be important new markets for rural fish farmers, according to AAQ committee member Geoff Wilson. He will enlarge upon this assertion at the AAQ conference at Childers on Sunday, July 23. A pictorial display will show recent aquaponics technology advances.
Geoff will raise the question: “Should every small rural town in the world have an aquaponic investment for local food security.?” He believes the small business investments in “village scale” aquaponics will be most important to help preserve and foster rural economies jeopardised by what he calls “industrialised farming” and “industrialised supermarketing” based upon it.
He says it is easy to observe that many inland towns “import” the majority of fresh fish, fresh vegetables and fresh flowers from central markets in capital cities – where once they grew their own for local needs. Often that fresh produce has already travelled a considerable distance at a substantial cost in diesel transport fuel. This inefficient practice has been made worse by the recent logistics evolution of the central warehousing system of supermarkets.
Geoff will explain how he foresees canny local aquaculture marketers seizing opportunities in rural areas, and even in the suburbs, to beat the supermarket system on a local supply basis – by purchasing semi-mature fish from rural pond growers and recirculation aquaculturalists.
An aquaponic investment in a greenhouse close to or within a town (perhaps with a roadside stall) growing out fresh fish, fresh salad vegetables and fresh flowers can compete well. The greenhouse for organic hydroponics can also be on a commercial rooftop, with the heavier aquaculture unit being on the ground or in a basement. The greenhouse can even be a tourist stop in its own right, especially if it has a restaurant at ground level to use fish and vegetable produce on site..
It can operate on minimal water supplies if run well on rainwater harvested from town or city buildings.
Geoff will reveal how the proposition gets even more interesting if the food for the fish in the aquaponics enterprise comes from local organic wastes via:
- On-site worm farming using restaurant and café food wastes.
- An on-site insectory using out-of-code dry food wastes from supermarkets to convert them into insect pupae for fish feeding.
The local aquaponic investor can then well argue a case for the now-prized “organically-grown” label that have been proven in capital city markets to be worth and extra 10% to 30% on the retail price. Specifications for organically-grown aquaculture and aquaponics produce (fish and food plants) are being studied by the Australian peak industry body, the National Aquaculture Council. It is most likely that an aquaponics grower will be the first to take advantage of such a specification.
Aquaponics thus has an allure of its own as we try to head towards a sustainable future in our urban living in Queensland towns and cities. “Think local” will be an even more important slogan to small-business aquaponic investors prepared to grasp the opportunities now in view.