If you havent seen this video yet, check it out.
Eric Maundu is an engineer in West Oakland who uses Arduino controllers to automate his aquaponics gardens. Its a pretty impressive setup in an otherwise barren industrial lot. A friend of mine, Donna Raef, visited with Eric at his garden in January. She had this to say about her visit:
"He is dedicated to technology more than aquaponics so it took me a bit off guard when at first he said he didnt care about farming or aquaponics. He only has one aquaponic system going and he monitors it through a computer system that tracks all kinds of levels, takes pictures, etc and compiles the data. It was a very impressive system. His philosophy seemed to be geared toward educating kids about science, math and technology through aquaponic systems with this kind of data collection. He has after school programs and other educational programs in some of the schools. It was a really good way to see farming/food production from that angle. He was pessimistic about just using aquaponics alone to inspire people to grow food or to get kids interested in it. His focus was really on the technology of gathering information and trying to make it more productive through technology. I am going to put him in contact with the greenhouse I worked at in Amarillo and hopefully he can come out there and teach the kids some stuff about the technology/aquaponics--he seemed really interested in that idea. I forgot to take a picture, sorry!"
Thanks Donna!
Thanks Donna!
