North London’s organic pioneer voted pick of the pubs

The Duke of Cambridge in Islington has been awarded the title of greenest pub in London, in a competition run by the Jellied Eel magazine, The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Ethical Eats catering network.

Almost 40 of the capital’s pubs were in the running for the award, which covers not just the drinks on offer, but the food, their environmental practices and links with the local community. The ten with the most public votes went before a panel of judges from CAMRA and Sustain, who examined the pubs’ ethical credentials to decide the winner.

Pick of the pubs, the Duke of Cambridge, has championed sustainable food and drink for 15 years, and was the country’s first organic pub. The pub has also worked with local schools and nurseries to teach children how to cook healthy meals using locally-grown, organic ingredients. It also supports local charities and encourages staff to volunteer in the community.

Judge Claire Cain, from CAMRA said: “There were some really good contenders, but the Duke of Cambridge really stood out. These days pubs are really struggling businesses and have to do so much more to up their game and reflect the change in our culture. At CAMRA we really want to see pubs engaging with their communities more, and the Duke is absolutely committed to doing that.”

Geetie Singh, the pub’s owner, said: “It’s hugely flattering to win this award. We are entirely organic, everything we buy is sustainable and seasonal, and although it’s a constant challenge to get enough quantities of anything, it’s incredibly exciting for our chefs. When we first opened I tried to keep it quiet that we were an ethical business because I thought people would be put off by it. But now customers come because they share our values and that’s really heartening. People can eat and drink delicious food here entirely guilt-free.”

South London’s hostelries didn’t miss out though. Kennington’s The Three Stags was awarded Highly Commended, for developing strong links with local growers. Ingredients like fruit, vegetables and herbs come from within a two-mile radius of the pub and are delivered by bike. Even closer to home, the pub has a beehive and herb-growing area on its roof. Non-alcoholic drinks include seasonal cordials (currently elderflower and red elderflower) made by in-house urban forager Tess. On the waste front, taking leftovers home in doggy bags is very much encouraged and everything from oil to food is recycled.

And a little further South in Streatham, The Railway made it into the winning three as ‘One to Watch’. The pub hosts a fortnightly food market to support local growers and businesses, like urban chilli farmers Peeps Treats who use the pub’s roof space. It also shares its kitchen with local cake maker Wren Cakes, who keep the pub’s new tearoom supplied with freshly baked cakes and pastries, and offers pensioners a discount.

Jellied Eel editor Ben Reynolds said: “We were really chuffed to see not only how London’s pubs are going that extra mile to bring good food and drink to the capital, but also the variety of community links they have built, with schools, local growers, charities and small food producers. And with pubs in the capital closing at an alarming rate, there’s no excuse not to get out there and support the neighbourhood boozer.”

One of the lucky voters has won a meal for two at the Duke, plus a free year-long CAMRA membership, a Good Beer Guide 2013 and a bottle opener.

CAMRA is a not-for-profit campaigning organisation for real ale and community pubs with 150,000 members and 160 beer festivals. www.camra.org.uk @camra_offical

The Jellied Eel is a quarterly London magazine about ethical eating. It is produced by London Food Link, part of the charity Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. 20,000 copies of the free magazine are distributed via 170 outlets across London. www.jelliedeel.org/stockists and Twitter @jelliedeelmag.

The Duke of Cambridge is at 30 St Peter’s Street, Islington, N1. http://sloeberry.co.uk @dukeorganic.

The Three Stags is at 67-69 Kennington Rd, SE1 7PZ. www.thethreestags.com @threestags.

The Railway is at 2 Greyhound Lane, SW16 5SD. www.therailwaysw16.co.uk @therailwaysw16.

Source: Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

This article is for your information only and the GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW does not (necessarily) approve, endorse or recommend the product, service, company or organization mentioned.

Electric cars – do zero emissions add up?

C02 emissions of electric cars compared

Buying an electric car may seem to be the green option when the energy label states Zero CO2 emissions. But that’s not the whole story when you factor in the electricity required to charge the batteries, and associated CO2 emissions created in electricity generation; the green benefits then become less clear.

According to Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), the latest Renault Clio 4, dCi 90 ECO, emits 83 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled. In comparison the Electric Nissan Leaf, requires 173 Watts of electricity to travel the same distance. Calculate the CO2 emissions produced to generate that amount of mains electricity, using the National Energy Foundations formula, and that equates to 94 grams of CO2. Thus making the diesel Clio more CO2 efficient by 206 kilograms per year, based on an annual mileage of 12,000 miles.

In financial terms, however, an electric car wins hands down on running costs. Based on the average mileage of 12,000, the electric Leaf will cost GBP 483 a year to run. The Clio 4 comes in at GBP 895, nearly double! These savings are mainly driven by the tax differentials between the energy sources, rather than CO2 efficiencies in use. The big benefit, in environmental terms, of electric cars is zero tail pipe emissions whilst moving – reducing pollution in towns and cities.

Ross from Sust-it said, "We were completely surprised when we started to analyse the Vehicle Certification Agency electric vehicle testing data. The perception is electric vehicles are the greenest way to travel; this only appears to be true if you’re using renewable electricity to charge the vehicle. The concept of zero emissions for electric cars needs to be corrected. A first step would be to clearly show the CO2 emissions produced in electricity generation, and then display this on the showroom energy labels and marketing material."

Sust-it’s website shows electricity costs associated with charging electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, plus associated CO2 emissions produced in electricity generation. Their unique running cost calculations show the real cost of running an electric car, and their emissions. The energy consumption figures are based on Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) testing data and average energy costs.

Sust-it’s energy efficiency website ranks products by their energy usage and CO2 emissions. It does this through its unique calculations of average usage, combined with carefully researched energy usage data published by manufacturers and government agencies. The site is constantly updated and contains a wide range of products from Cars to Chest Freezers.

You can compare electricity tariffs and calculate your CO2 emissions at the same time. The electricity unit rates used to calculate the costs per hour/cycle/year are based on the BIS (Department for Business Innovation & skills) Quarterly Energy Prices. CO2 Calculations taken from National Energy Foundation. The Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) publishes fuel prices and consumption figures used by Sust-it.

The Sust-it website has been conceived and developed by TurnRound, after it’s proprietor Ross Lammas, became increasingly frustrated by the difficulty in finding the data on the energy consumption of products, whilst he was building an environmentally sustainable office and home. The site is independent from any manufacturers, retailers or energy companies. And does not receive any funding from any Government agencies, trusts or independent charities.

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

This article is for your information only and the GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW does not (necessarily) approve, endorse or recommend the product, service, company or organization mentioned.

Stay hydrated (this summer), but best avoid drinking from plastic water bottles

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Water in plastic bottles can cause all sorts of health and environmental problems – so rather use tap water and use a refillable bottle instead. If you do not like the taste of tap water or are concerned about the chlorine and possibly even fluoride in the water then use a (charcoal) filter.

The weather this summer has been (mostly) glorious, but the heat means we all need to drink more water to stay hydrated. A fact many people forget and then get sick.

As water makes up about 60 percent of our weight keeping well hydrated is vital for proper functioning as every system in the body depends on water. Dehydration can lead to all manner of ills, including kidney failure and death.
Water helps with alertness and performance in sports, it controls appetite, and it also keeps symptoms like fatigue, headaches and dry skin at bay.

In the summer heat, we perspire more and need to drink more. Also, perspiration causes us to lose salt which we have to replenish and for that reason the military issues soldiers with salt tablets in hot conditions.

But in the summer, drinking water from a plastic bottle – which we all know is an expensive way to get water¹, and is never great from an environmental point of view² – means that the exposure to chemicals such as BPA and phthalates³ which leach from the plastic into the water is made worse by the heat. (BPA and phthalates can cause a whole host of problems to the immune system, the brain and the prostate.)

When we talk here about plastic bottles it refers to those made from PET primarily and those made from polycarbonate material of the old style. There are plastic bottles that do not leach BPA and other nasty stuff and thus are usable.

So, follow these guidelines to stay hydrated, healthy and cut down on waste:

On the move: If you're out and about: drink tap water using a refillable, re-usable bottle and you have a number of choices in that department. The best choice is glass, but that is breakable. The next best is stainless steel but there are also some BPA free plastic bottles to be had such as the Ohyo, which is a collapsible water bottle, the Brita with even a built-in charcoal filter, or, last but not least, De Dopper. Plastic is not always bad in all three cases they are BPA free.

About 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to make water bottles each year around the world, and the processing itself releases toxic compounds like nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. Not to mention the health problems that plastic water bottles can cause.

There are many public fountains and refilling places for reusable bottles that can be found on the Internet in and around London and possibly also elsewhere. Unfortunately many pubs and such like are very reluctant to fill up people's bottles and this is rather a shame. Everyone is seeing Pound signs in front of their eyes all the time instead of being community and environmentally minded.

At home: Drink tap water at home instead of buying water and, as said, if you don't like the taste or are concerned about impurities as well as chlorine or even fluoride then use a charcoal filter and filter your water. The same goes for being out and about.

You could also invest in a distiller which guarantees total safety as far as your water is concerned distillation will remove (almost) everything. I never say 100% as it simply is not possible.

You can use filtered water to drink at home, or fill up a refillable bottle to take around with you. But avoid, as much as possible, buying bottled water which, aside from the fact that the plastic bottles may leach chemicals, and thus the stuff is not good for your physical health, it is also not good for your financial health and that of the Planet.

Who, in their right mind, would pay $2 for less than a quart of bottled water which, in a great majority of cases, is but tap water which may, or may not, have been filtered and, maybe, undergone “reverse osmosis”.

In Britain and many other countries tap water is perfectly safe – safer in fact than bottled water as municipal water undergoes much stricter testing than does bottled water – to drink as it comes and even better so if filtered or distilled and then left to settle for a couple of hours.

Please remember also that hydration is not just important in the summer heat. Also in the cold of winter dehydration happens fast, only you do not realize it as easily and often it can be too late. So, remember to stay hydrated at all times with your own refillable water bottle and tap.

Give me tap...

© 2013

1 Typically bottled water retails at up to 500 times more than the price of tap water. ETC, University of Nottingham.

2 Bottled water also has considerable environmental costs, including the energy costs of production and transport, and the environmental costs of disposing of (or, very rarely, recycling) the bottles. Sustainweb

3 Studies have shown that phthalates, which are known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, can leach into bottled water over time. NDRC

Using the whole tree, and not just for firewood

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

All too often woodsmen and coppice workers today can but think firewood and, maybe, a few other things as to the use the trees that they cut, whether in coppicing or general felling operations.

However, aside from the roots – which in coppicing you leave anyway as the new growth comes from them – and the tips and leaves (if any of the latter) the entire can be and should be used for more than just firewood, even though wood fuel, in the form of firewood, is important. Other products, though, are what adds value to the timber.

Producing firewood – logs and kindling – is, obviously, a quick and easy way of turning the wood from the lot worked into some sort of an income. But other products give a much better margin of return and even more so if the coppice worker is also the person producing them. At the same time such wooden, or treen, goods also keep the carbon locked up in the wood for a much longer period.

Like the early foresters, who were employed by the Navy and the mines, we need to develop the eye and to be able to judge what each and every piece of wood from a tree could possibly be made into to get the best value in both uses and return out of a tree.

Every branch and every piece must be considered as to how it can be used and for what purpose. If we think just firewood and beanpoles we blinker ourselves to other, more more valuable, possibilities.

Any piece of wood, of timber, that is not turned into wood to go up in flames and smoke, literally, but is made into something that may be used for many years, decades even, or longer still, keeps carbon locked up and this benefits all.

Treen goods of all kinds, made by hand to last, much like furniture, will lock up the carbon that the tree absorbed (sequestered) out of the atmosphere during its growth for as long as the product “lives” and thus keeps it out of the atmosphere.

Although firewood is, in a sense, a carbon neutral fuel, other products are still better, especially as they also ad more and greater value to the timber harvested.

Firewood and beanpoles are, obviously, a lot easier and faster to produce that are other products, be those wooden kitchen utensils, garden aids, such as dibbers, etc., tool handles, walking sticks, baskets, furniture, and much more. The latter products require more forethought (no malice needed though a mallet could come in handy at times), and work, and also additional tools and skills. They do, however, add a much higher value and more joy.

Today's woodsman, like his predecessor, is never going to become a millionaire, even if he own the wood(s), but could reap a much greater return on investment if he would consider uses for his trees and timber aside from just firewood, charcoal and bean poles.

© 2013

Keeping the industrial economy and stopping climate change is an illusion

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

To think we can keep the industrial economy and stop climate change is an illusion. It would require more than simple magic. It would require a miracle.

The powers-that-be keep harping on that we need to get the economy growing again after the recession the world went through – what do you mean after the recession? – despite the fact that the constant growth economy is simply impossible in a world that if finite and the non-renewable resources of which are finite and almost exhausted. It is simply not possible and stopping climate change at the same time, as they think they can do while growing the economy is more than wishful thinking; it is an illusion.

The very notion of stopping and reversing climate change, as the proponents often talk about, is an illusion in itself, as may scientists also begin to agree. We will, as I have said for many years by now, learn to adapt to the fact that changes are happening which could, however, in the end, lead us to a new ice age rather than a hotter Planet.

However, we need to stop the pollution and stop talking about carbon and carbon credits. The substance nowadays referred to as brown or black carbon and which is responsible for most of the glacial melt once was simply called what is it, namely soot and it comes from the chimneys of industry.

Furthermore, as foresters already for ages and now forest and climate scientists have stated, an increase in CO2 will actually benefit trees and plants by increasing growth. This is not to say, however, that the stuff in the atmosphere may not have some other, yet unknown, serious side effects. Thus we have to reduce pollution and CO2 emissions are but part of our industrial pollution.

And how do we do that?

The answer is simple but also rather complicated for it calls for serious changes in the way we live and work and travel, and much more.

Another problem is that we have waited for many decades. We knew already in the late 1960s and in the 1970s that pollution was causing problems to the environment, and not just air pollution, and the Hippies in those days warned us about the throwaway society that we were becoming also. It was in those days when the word recycling was invented though the act has existed for generations and generations and reuse even more so.

The eightieth arrived, however, with Thatcher in the UK, and for some reason all the lessons that were being learned in the two decades before we thrown out like the proverbial baby with the bathwater in the pursuit of more and more material things and the wholesale murder of the Earth was ratcheted up a couple of hundred notches and the rest, as they say, is history.

We still have not woken up really even now as governments still believe that the economy must continue to grow and that we will find a way of getting the Planet back on track. The term “dream on” comes to mind here or “cloud cuckoo land”.

Even among people in the so-called green movement the talk is about a need to grow the green economy and to look for continual growth. This is fine if we can make products, etc., from waste materials only, and without the use of energy, or much of it, which all too often still is generated from non-renewable fuels. Greensumption has taken over from ordinary consumption and far too many believe that if they buy recycled goods and chuck their recyclables into the appropriate bins they can continue the status quo.

All too often we see that those who claim to be “green” cannot think further than the recycling bin and then going to the shops (or on the Internet) purchasing something recycled that they could have, very simply and easily, made from what they have tossed minutes ago into the recycling bin.

Very few seem to realize this and seem to realize that we are being conjured up a reality of an economy that is simply unsustainable and that a total U-turn is required if we and the Earth are to live and thrive.

In the first instance we will have to get the corporations out of the picture and then we need to change the system not the government. We do not need a (new) government, we need a new system. A system where the Earth and all Her children, humans, animals and plants, live together in harmony and where our interdependence upon the rest of the Planet is considered.

One of the first thing that need to change is the economy. From a permanent growth economy to a constant resource based one. Products need to be made again that last and that can be repaired by simple means and after their life has truly come to an end can be dismantled, easily into their components which can then be used to make new things.

Then, or may be parallel to that, our system needs to change from one that exploits man and Earth to one were that is a thing of the past and where people and the Planet are considered.

All of this, however, will mean a total change in what we have been used to over the last G-d only knows how many decades and centuries and it will not be an easy change for many.

However, the alternative is that of a Planet that can no longer support (human) life and thus the end of us all. We have only one Earth and there is no other Planet like it to which we can all escape (sorry, Prof, Hawkins, but you are wrong and a moron in that field). We either change or we all die, and this could be sooner than we think. The Earth – Gaia – will survive but we will not. Simple as that, unless we change and change now!

© 2013

Adapting Eden – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Adapting Eden (Save the Pearls Part 2)
by Victoria Foyt
300 pages, hardcover, 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
Published by Sand Dollar Press. Inc.; 1 edition (April 22, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0983650355

In the sequel to the award-winning, dystopian novel, Revealing Eden, Eden Newman must adapt into a hybrid human beast if she hopes to become Ronson Bramford’s mate. She has no choice but to undergo her father’s adaptation experiment at his makeshift laboratory in the last patch of rainforest. But when the past rears its ugly head, Eden and Bramford must abandon camp along with their family and friends. Luckily, an Aztec tribe that has survived with the aid of a healing plant provides them with sanctuary – or do they have a deeper motive? Too late, Eden realizes she is at the center of an epic spiritual battle between love and war. To survive, she must face her deepest fears or lose everything, including, Bradford, the beastly man she loves.

Acclaimed writer VICTORIA FOYT, brings to this compelling sequel the same page-turning suspense, wild adventure and romantic intrigue that captivated readers of Save the Pearls Part One.

This is not just an important sequel to Revealing Eden, Part one of Save the Pearls, but a very important and great read that teaches many lessons.

The most important message that we must take from this book, though there are many others (messages that is), is that if and when love dies humanity and the Planet will too as the god of war will then rule. At times we must wonder if this not already has happened in our world today.

The book is very fast moving and at times the reader will want to speed read in order to find out what happens next. That, however, I would advise against as, in doing so, important messages could be missed.

Victoria Foyt is an author and filmmaker. She currently lives in Santa Monica, California with her two children and a lot of books.

This is a very fitting sequel and I cannot wait for book three to come out so that I can read it too and find out what happens to Eden, Radford and the rest.

© 2013

Raise your children like you raise your garden

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A gardener does not grow flowers; he gives them what he thinks they need and they grow by themselves. ~ John Holt

You can, obviously, substitute plants for the word flowers, and this also applies to the raising of children. That is to say that all that is required is nurture and not violence.

When a child hits a sibling for whatever reason does it make sense to punish the offender by giving him or her a beating? It does not. For all that you do is show the child that violence is supposed to bring forth a positive result and that is what the child learns from that. So, when he or she wants something – for him or her a positive result – he or she will employ violence to get it.

The way you talk to your children becomes their inner voice. ~ Peggy O'Mara

This is too goes with the raising of children like raising a garden. You cannot shout at your plants to get a result nor hit them with a stick or whatever to make them grow better. The same is true in most cases as regards to children.

It is no good shouting at the child “do as I tell you” when you do not set the example. Telling a child not to smoke, for instance, while you consume x-amount of cigarettes per day hardly will get any result at all. And the same goes for alcohol.

Don't tell your reluctant child to go out and play outdoors. Go with him and enjoy the outdoors together. You both may learn something and actually enjoy your time together.

The proverb says “What goes around, comes around”, the the German proverb “Wie man in den Wald hinein ruft, schallt es herraus” covers this much better. The direct translation would be “the way you shout into the forests the echo repeats it”, and children are our echo. We must remember that each and every day when dealing with children, our own or others.

© 2013

Government: It's all about control

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Government is all about control and absolutely nothing else regardless what we are being told.

A free people do not need to have anyone lord it over them, no king and not government, however democratic it claims to be.

Democracy is but an illusion to keep the masses quiet and does not and cannot work with groups larger than 150 individuals. The monks of old learned that and that was why, when that number was being reached, they sent out groups of monks to form sister monasteries and abbeys.

The so-called people's representatives, the elected ones, are about as much representatives of the people as Monsanto is a charity and the knight in shining armor protecting us from pesticides.

A free people, theoretically, can do as they wish as long as they do not infringe on the liberty of others and harm others. However, find me a country, a place, where this is the case. Everywhere government of one kind or another tells the people what they can do and what they cannot do and for most activities the people require a permit – against payment – from said governments.

You have hens and want to sell eggs to your neighbors. Can you, legally? No! You need a government license to do so and that license will cost you money and government interference.

The same goes for growing produce in your garden or allotment and wishing to sell surplus. You cannot do so, legally, without a paid-for government permit.

You need a government permit, called a driver's license, to drive a car and another license to actually run the car on the road. And the same goes for motorbikes. You need a license to get married, you need to have your birth registered or you cannot leave the country and reenter it; that is to say you cannot get a passport without this piece of government paper.

If you have children they can be taken away from you if you do not raise them as the government tell you to and do not send them to school (in many places).

In order to – legally – get a job in the great majority of the countries, even so-called democratic ones, and especially in those, you need a government number, the social security number, and that is almost not possible to get without the aforementioned birth certificate. And the same goes for a bank account and many more things.

Even if you have committed no crime, are not even in the slightest a terrorist, the government is more than likely to spy on you and your every move, and even more so if you express dissident thoughts or read books that they may consider “bad” or visit websites your government does not like.

There is an old saying that the enemy at the gate we do not have to be afraid of as we know them but the enemy within we have to watch and the enemy within are, predominately, our own governments.

As far as the governments are today concerned all citizens are potential criminals and terrorists and are guilty until and unless they, the people, can prove themselves innocent, and even then the control will continue.

Those who think that they are free think again... and I have only touched upon a small amount of government control here.

We do not need a new government; we need a new system without government. A new true system where men are truly free...

© 2013

Cool Energy Inc. Awarded $1 Million Grant from Department of Energy

20kW Stirling Engine Converts Wasted Heat into Electricity for $800 Million Market

BOULDER, CO, July 2013 (WORLD-WIRE) : Cool Energy, Inc., a clean energy power generation company with headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, announced today that it has been awarded a $1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The grant will support a program to demonstrate electricity generation from untapped heat from distributed geothermal sources. The grant will allow Cool Energy to build and test their first 20kW prototype Stirling engine, the “GeoHeart® Engine,” to generate electricity from co-produced liquids at oil and gas wells. The recoverable heat in these liquids is currently wasted, as is the potentially valuable heat from pumps and compressors, as well as geothermal heat from non-producing wells.

“If widely deployed in appropriate heat recovery sectors, our power generation technology could replace up to 300 fossil fuel power plants,” said Sam Weaver, CEO of Cool Energy.

The GeoHeart® Engine system will convert heat from liquids extracted from the ground to make zero-emissions energy. The Cool Energy technology will capture energy from liquids that are in the temperature range 100°C - 200° degrees Celsius. This temperature is ideally suited for the company’s low temperature waste heat recovery (WHR) system.

The heat can be safely and efficiently converted into electricity that can be used onsite to offset the power needed for the operation of the wells, or sold to the local utility and added directly into the power grid. This approach to oilfield power production will prevent some of the carbon emissions generated from these activities.

“Given recent advances in our designs, there is an opportunity for electricity cost savings and emissions reductions in oil and gas fields, which have significant thermal energy sources all around them,” said Weaver. “This is the most important increase in output capacity that Cool Energy has undertaken since beginning to develop Stirling engines for waste heat recovery six years ago.”

Cool Energy will also study another application of the GeoHeart Engine, using spent wells that are no longer producing petroleum to heat fluids to make emissions-free electricity.

Well data in 32 U.S. states by the National Renewable Energy Lab shows about 2.5 million well bores in the U.S., with about half a million active. According to a 2012 World Oil Magazine report, the annual well count in the U.S. was increasing at 3.2% per year.

Most of the wells with usable temperatures for the Cool Energy technology are in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Wyoming and California. The total market for power generation from co-produced fluids using a GeoHeart Engine system is $500M to $800M in the U.S.

Cool Energy is a privately-held power conversion equipment corporation based in Boulder, Colorado. The company was founded in 2006 to develop a thermal-to-electrical power generation system for converting waste heat from engines and industrial processes into clean electricity. The company has received grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office, and has 10 patents awarded or pending.
More information is available at www.CoolEnergy.com

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

This article is for your information only and the GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW does not (necessarily) approve, endorse or recommend the product, service, company or organization mentioned.

Aquaponics Revolutionizes Local Food Growing by Recycling 90% Water

2013 Aquaponics Conference Highlights Technology in Tucson, AZ from September 20-22

TUCSON, AZ, July 2013 (WORLD-WIRE) With U.S. society challenged by the increasing needs for locally-grown healthy food, water conservation in drought-like conditions across the Southern and Western U.S., and the global need to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, aquaponics becomes increasingly important.

Aquaponics is the productive practice of combined fish and plant growing which uses a percentage of the water and energy that is consumed in conventional soil-based agriculture.

To educate the general public about best practices for setting up home-based systems or larger commercial-scale aquaponic farms, the national Aquaponics Association will host three days of presentations and tours of small and large-scale operations at the 2013 Aquaponics Association Conference at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona from September 20-22, 2013.

“Aquaponics has broad appeal because it meets basic needs such as food security and food safety, self reliance, sustainability and water conservation, while creating a pleasing indoor environment to grow your own fresh and healthy food year-round,” said Gina Cavaliero, Chair of the 2013 Aquaponic Association Conference and owner of Green Acre Aquaponics, a commercial aquaponics farm in Brooksville, Florida.

Using a nutrient enriched water supply, aquaponics integrates two symbiotic growing methods: aquaculture or fish farming, and hydroponics, growing plants without the need of soil.

In aquaponics, water is re-circulated in a constructed system that mimics a dynamic pond-like eco-system. The result is a balanced and self-sustaining environment that utilizes natural bacterial cycles to convert fish waste to plant nutrients.

The technique produces higher yields of plants per square foot with 10 percent of the water used by conventional soil-based growing methods by recycling 90 percent of the water which continually circulates through the plant growing bed and back to the fish.

“Aquaponics is popular because growing systems are scalable to meet the needs of both the home grower wanting to feed her family with organic produce and fresh fish without concerns about mercury and pesticides, to a commercial-scale aquaponics farmer producing food sustainably for retailers and helping to eliminate food deserts,” said Cavaliero.

This year’s third annual conference will lead of with keynote speakers Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia, the author of eight books including The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer, and Max Meyers of Nor Cal Aquaponics in California, Executive Director of the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center.

Tucson Mayor Johnathan Rothschild has proclaimed Friday, Sept. 20 as Aquaponics Day. Mayor Rothschild will hold an opening ceremony at the Conference on Sept. 20th at 6 pm.

For more information about Conference workshops and tours and to register online, visit the Conference website at: http://www.aquaponicsassociation.org.

In aquaponics, fish and plants are grown together in a dynamic sustainable environment. The fish waste feeds the plants using organic hydroponic techniques. The plants, in turn, clean and filter the water that returns to the fish environment. The practice of aquaponics has ancient roots and has been used in some form in China, Egypt, India, Thailand and by the Aztec people who cultivated agricultural islands known as “Chinampas." The modern technique of growing fish and plants synergistically become popular in the past several years in response to pressing issues such as food security and food independence, healthy and organic produce, local and sustainable food growing, food safety, and water conservation.

Established in 2011, the Aquaponics Association was founded to serve as an educational resource for home-based aquaponic enthusiasts, organic gardeners and commercial-scale aquaponics farmers across the nation. The Association promotes the benefits of aquaponic growing through education and outreach.

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