Sustainable Agriculture Via
Aquaponic Technologies
By Gerald Goldberg, MD
3-19-8
- One functional definition of slavery, serfdom or economic domination could be the ability to so utterly dominate and control an individuals or groups choice so that they would ultimately act irresponsibly against their own self interests and those around them. Ultimately life is defined on the ability of an individual to derive basic support from their local environments. The bedrock of freedom rests on the ability to act responsibly and in accordance with the laws of nature. The fundamentals required for survival depend on the necessities of having access to shelter, food and water. A social group so organized would have little incentive to participate in their own self destruction. Historically most wars and population disruptions have been based on displacing individuals from the land. The undercurrents as discussed in the numerous articles posted on this website, basically talk about so economically dominating a population as to deny them any choices at all. In essence, to control their lives is tantamount to denying them freedom and to ultimately to undermine their fundamental right to life.
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- The drive towards globalization and the centralization of responsibility for the welfare of citizens on the beneficence of government, may put communities at peril. I have worked in disaster preparedness programs and apart from the platitudes passed around, there is little effort to provide for the basic needs of any small communities. There is no attention paid to the stockpiling of basic fundamentals such as water or food, let alone shelter, as was readily witnessed in the Katrina tragedy. Money is received into taxes, civil servants are paid, but there is little concern or awareness for long term planning to sustain a community in times of crisis. Communities are seldom engaged in developing their own preparedness strategies. How democratic is that? What if there were a referendum to allocate an underground storage facility of between 5000 to 10000 gallons for every 500 citizens in a community? This could be in the form of an underground cistern or storage tank, which are readily available for storing gasoline. This could be one possibility for a community to focus on
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- Another aspect is the ability for a community to have enough food on hand to feed its own population. Currently the methodologies of stock piling depend on using produce from other area which in and of itself may not be fresh. Also in times of emergencies or disruptions, it might be difficult to deliver goods to a particular region. What is a community to do in that particular set of circumstances? The current models of agricultural development and production are dependent on the decentralization of community control. Also the ability of particular regions to grow crops is heavily dependent on surface agriculture methods, which are weather dependent; utilize inordinate amounts of energy, land and pesticides. The current trend in agriculture is to produce genetic variation in the plants so that production can proceed against adverse environmental influences. This whole scenario depends on surface agriculture controlling vast expanses of land and resources that is heavily dependent on keeping farmers and communities in debt in order to survive and to be productive. The selective utilization of government subsidies also heavily biases' crop production in a given region.
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- What if a small to medium sized community could be self sufficient and produce its own types of crops and vegetation, enough to provide for a local community in areas of the country that would normally be considered to be unsuited for agricultural production at any time of year. What if a community could enter into a cooperative effort that could provide for continuous production of organic foods all year round. What sort of community would that be?
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- Aguaponic production provides for the possibility of crop production that can be maintained indefinitely with a minimal overutilization of the environment and resources. Presently the current methodologies require a large investiture in resources and land to sustain such a venture. In northern climates green house environments are maintained but these are not necessarily energy efficient and practical for small communities.
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