[Sc-aquaponics] Aquaponic innovation in China

[Tiu, Laura]

James Godsil introduces a colleague in China who is encouraging innovative techniques for food production and security.  Interesting.
Laura

Laura Tiu, PhD Aquaculture Extension Specialist
740-289-2071 x.121 Office | 800-297-2072 x. 121 Office
tiu.2 at osu.edu


David Li combines urban ag through aquaponics (http://blog.shanghaiaquaponics.com/) with his founding role in a Shanghai "Makers" project(http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Xinchejian). The "Wall Street Journal" covered his Makers story(http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303722604579111253495145952).  He is very interested in sharing innovations in small scale urban farming and small scale urban manufacturing, including desk top production of aquaponics system components.

Here are a couple of concepts from a recent David Li essay to inspire this dialogue vision.

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/EarthRenaissance/HomePage

Chinese Mayors Mandated To Guarantee 70% of Daily Veggies Grown In City Limit

>From the perspective of Shanghai, food security isn't much an issue, especially when it comes to the fresh vegetables. There is a national policy called "vegetables basket" mandating every mayor in China has to guarantee 70% of the daily vegetables to be produced with in the city limit. The city track these sagas and published daily wholesales price of over 200 vegetables. This makes interesting urban planning and let us have access to plenty of farmlands at very affordable price with in 30 miles of the city center. In the city, wet markets are in all neighborhoods providing access to fresh vegetables among other at very affordable price.

"Farm Together" Experiment:  Urbanites Pay Farmers In Terms of Square Meters, Not Kilograms

Farm Together is one of our answers to this. We are connecting urbanites to the farms and farmers around the city and have the concept of "Buying safe and healthy food by square meter."

Basically, urbanites will pay farmers to farm for them but pay in term of square meters instead of kilogram. This frees up the farmers' risks in ensuring enough production to sustain their income and shift the risks to the much better off urbanites who can actually get vegetables for less then their yearly Starbucks spending. It also remove the incentives of using chemical fertilizers. And in the same time, we can double farmers' income.

Any feedback and comments are welcome! Farm Together is still work in progress and we are launching the pilot in March this year.

Wall Street Journal re David Li's Xinchejian, i.e  "new workshop."

Lone inventors have long tinkered in garages. But today, inventors can use software to design objects to be produced by desktop machines like 3-D printers. They can get funded on Kickstarter. And thanks to the Internet, DIY is thoroughly collaborative. Rather than work on projects in secret, people freely share their ideas and designs online. Chris Anderson, former editor in chief of Wired, describes makers as "the Web generation creating physical things rather than just pixels on screens."
[http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-ZE267_china1_DV_20131004185002.jpg]

David Li at Xinchejian

Xinchejian, founded in 2010, means "new workshop." It occupies a rented room in a Shanghai warehouse. Members pay around $16 a month to use the space and tools, and on Wednesday nights it is open to the public. The Taiwan-born David Li, a 40-year-old programmer and a co-founder of Xinchejian, wants to lower the barriers for experimentation and play. "It's not about getting together a group of geeks doing something. It's a conduit for people to say, 'This interactive stuff is not that scary, not that difficult.'"

The Chinese government has taken an interest in the maker movement. Not long after Xinchejian opened its doors, Shanghai officials announced a plan to build 100 government-supported innovation houses. Last November, according to Mr. Li, the Communist Youth League of Shanghai helped to attract over 50,000 visitors to a Maker Carnival, where makers exhibited their creations to the public.

Officials have also visited Xinchejian, and for now, Mr. Li sees their involvement as a positive development. He notes that the lack of accountability in the Chinese political system sometimes encourages innovation and risk-taking. "The policy makers we meet here are genuinely very curious. They have the resources. They are not afraid to try," he says. "They could build bridges to nowhere, and they will still have a job."



Best,

Godsil


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