Chapter 1 Aquaponics and Global Food Challenges
1.5 The Future of Aquaponics
Technology has enabled agricultural productivity to grow exponentially in the last century, thus also supporting significant population growth. However, these changes also potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, to maintain freshwater and forest resources and to help regulate climate and air quality (Foley et al. 2005). One of the most pressing challenges in innovative food production, and thus in aquaponics, is to address regulatory issues constraining the expansion of integrated technologies.
· Aquaponics Food Production Systems1.4 Economic and Social Challenges
From an economic perspective, there are a number of limitations inherent in aquaponics systems that make specific commercial designs more or less viable (Goddek et al. 2015; Vermeulen and Kamstra 2013). One of the key issues is that stand-alone, independent hydroponics and aquaculture systems are more productive than traditional one-loop aquaponics systems (Graber and Junge 2009), as they do not require trade-offs between the fish and plant components. Traditional, classic single-loop aquaponics requires a compromise between the fish and plant components when attempting to optimize water quality and nutrient levels that inherently differ for the two parts (e.
· Aquaponics Food Production Systems1.3 Scientific and Technological Challenges in Aquaponics
Whilst aquaponics is seen to be one of the key food production technologies which ‘could change our lives’ (van Woensel et al. 2015), in terms of sustainable and efficient food production, aquaponics can be streamlined and become even more efficient. One of the key problems in conventional aquaponics systems is that the nutrients in the effluent produced by fish are different than the optimal nutrient solution for plants. Decoupled aquaponics systems (DAPS), which use water from the fish but do not return the water to the fish after the plants, can improve on traditional designs by introducing mineralization components and sludge bioreactors containing microbes that convert organic matter into bioavailable forms of key minerals, especially phosphorus, magnesium, iron, manganese and sulphur that are deficient in typical fish effluent.
· Aquaponics Food Production Systems1.2 Supply and Demand
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the need to tackle global challenges, ranging from climate change to poverty, with sustainable food production a high priority (Brandi 2017; UN 2017). As reflected in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 2 (UN 2017), one of the greatest challenges facing the world is how to ensure that a growing global population, projected to rise to around 10 billion by 2050, will be able to meet its nutritional needs.
· Aquaponics Food Production Systems1.1 Introduction
Food production relies on the availability of resources, such as land, freshwater, fossil energy and nutrients (Conijn et al. 2018), and current consumption or degradation of these resources exceeds their global regeneration rate (Van Vuuren et al. 2010). The concept of planetary boundaries (Fig. 1.1) aims to define the environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate with regard to scarce resources (Rockström et al. 2009). Biochemical flow boundaries that limit food supply are more stringent than climate change (Steffen et al.
· Aquaponics Food Production Systems