Earlier today, I commented on Nat Singleton's Dumbed Down America post, where he asked whether urban planners in New Jersey have truly assessed aquaculture as an opportunity:
Nat, once in a while there are federal SBIR grants for small businesses pursuing innovative aquaculture It is not an easy business to get into; I would advise entrepreneurs to spend some apprenticeship time in a fishery before undertaking it. Capital costs for closed systems are high, and you have to have serious back-up power, etc. to keep everything alive, clean, and working. But government needs to be aware of all urban food production possibilities in order to rethink what types of businesses they seek to attract.
Turned out after my comment that there is such a grant open right now at NSF (linked above). Urban agra/aqua is so new most of our older cities--it can require zoning changes as well as mindset adjustments. In the coming weeks of this project, I'll seek out insight from entrepreneurs working in the new aquaculture, as well as other new ways of producing food in non-traditional infrastructure. Some of you who follow me on Twitter are clearly experts in this, so I'm interested in what you guys think city planners should be reading on this subject.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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