Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 10

80 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 10 developed a prison education program where inmates not only have the opportunity to engage in practice with aquaponics, but they also go through a certification program when they come out. Then they are provided an employment opportunity. The Aquaponics Association community department actually had their first batch of successful graduates earlier this year. “On the other hand, when a lot of academic research goes through journals, it gets bundled with a heap of other horticultural innovations and doesn’t actually transfer to the farmer, in terms of ‘this is the concept and this is how you can put it into practice’. Our research wing decodes that information. We’re in the process of establishing white papers that are farmer specific, as well as developing modus operandi for food safety certification. So we’re playing the role of liaison between the certifying body, such as the USDA, and the farmer who has the issue of transferring from a regular production to an organic production.” Filipowich: “We also do public policy work. It’s been a long fight about whether aquaponics produce can be labeled USDA Certified organic – we’ve been working on that issue and there are now several certified organic aquaponics farms in the U.S. We actually got aquaponics written into legislation for the first time ever, in the 2018 farm bill. There have also been concerns with major food safety certifiers and we’ve organized growers and pushed back any false information. So we’re serving as a trade group, a representative board, for aquaponics growers.” BVM: How would you describe the commercial value of the Association to members? Venkat: “Through the Association, we’re looking to connect farmers to that next level by giving them connections in the industry that can help them develop their product, their methodology, their process. Not only are we trying to connect them to aquaponics suppliers, we’re also trying BVM: What role does the Association play from an education perspective? Filipowich: “One of our Association working groups is Aquaponics and STEM education. Interest in aquaponics is growing rapidly in schools, there are over 5,000 aquaponics systems integrated into science education in schools across the country. Some high schools have four-credit aquaponics classes for senior students. In those classes, they’d learn biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics.” Venkat: “In addition to STEM, we have a research component that reaches out to university academics. We also have one in the community line of work. These three working groups are actively involved in engaging with their specific audience. The community program has