In an effort to answer rising consumer demands for fish despite demishing supplies, one New York entreprenuer has taken to cultivating thousands of tilapia in gurgling tubs in his Brooklyn Warehouse. As a recent article in Seed Magazine reports, "counterintuitive though it may seem, growing fish in the inner city could ameliorate some of the issues confronting both traditional fish farming and the wild-catch industry."
Schreibman claims that this new application of a 2,500-year-old practice could turn abandoned lots into farms (of a sort), helping to restore declining fish populations in the process. "The recirculating technology, which is a water re-use system," he explains, "enables you to grow fish in large numbers, in a limited area." He thinks urban aquaculture could be a $1.5 billion-a-year industry—in New York alone. There’s a social component to Professor Schreibman’s master plan, as well; he hopes to remedy urban ills by providing jobs and food for the poor.
Though most of the aquaculture ventures in the US have struggled, the article reports that the aquaculture in China is "all the rage." Further, aquaculture has other potentially useful applications. As noted in the article, "Schreibman recently started cultivating vegetables with the nitrogen-rich wastewater. To the surprise of no one familiar with the 10,000-year history of cultivating plants, they grow like weeds."
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