Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 10

77 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 10 create a recirculating system of fish and plants. The basic way it works is that you feed your fish, they produce waste, and then the plants are able to use that waste as the nutrients they need to grow. They simultaneously filter the water for the fish because they’re taking up the nutrients. Because of that symbiotic recirculating system, you end up saving a lot of water and using everything in your system, rather than having to emit a lot of waste.” BVM: Is aquaponics growing as an industry? Filipowich: “It has been a slow and steady increase of business. Aquaponics is not as big as either hydroponics or aquaculture, alone. Gradually, there’s been more commercial operations and they’re increasing in size and technical capacity. Much of it is getting the technology to work right. It’s a challenge because you’re basically running two parallel industries. “You have to be good at growing, marketing, and selling your plants, while also raising, marketing, and selling your fish. Plus all the business and legal aspects that come with both of those divisions. And the two have to be in balance with each other. We’re finally starting to see a critical mass, in the last five years, of a lot of commercial, high-tech aquaponics farms succeeding for long THE AQUAPONI CS ASSOC I AT ION