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Auburn University: Growing a Fish Mafia

By 2050, there will be ten billion people on the planet. Currently, there are only half a billion. Most of the farmable land is already being used. This sparked a search for new ways to grow food for a growing population. How do agriculturalists feed more people with no land left to farm?

This question led to exploring an untapped, yet plentiful resource: the ocean. Auburn University leads the pack in researching aquaponics to combat food insecurity around the world.

What is Aquaponics?

Aquaponics is growing aquatic fish alongside plants in a controlled environment to produce two marketable products, fish and plants. As fish put solid waste in the water, it breaks down into nitrates, which is what plants want.

Essentially, aquaponics is the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture. Hydroponics is growing plants without soil, while aquaculture is farming fish. Putting these two concepts together results in aquaponics.

In recent years, Extension Aqua Culturalist and Associate Extension Professor in the School of Fisheries Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Dr. Cline, said fish producers have latched on to this idea because they can repurpose the nutrients left over from their fish to get profit from selling fish and the water they live in.

“The primary cost of raising aquatic animals is feed,” Cline said. “It’s not magic that the nutrients come free from aquaponics, but you can make the most use out of those nutrients that are supplied from the feed and get double duty out of it.”

Cline said most people in aquaponics are interested in the liquid part of the waste, but there is still value in the solid part before it is dissolved. Solid parts can be used as a soil amendment.

“Actually, miracle grow is primarily fish emulsion, or a fish product,” Cline said.

There are several types of aquaponics, with the most common type being the deep-water raft system.

In the raft system, a Styrofoam raft floats on top of the nutrient filled water. The raft has small holes poked in it to hold the leafy part of the plant. As the plant sits on the Styrofoam, the roots extend down into the water to soak up nutrients where the fish and their wastes live.

Aquaponics History

The concept of aquaponics has been around for a long time. The Chinese experimented with aquaponics thousands of years ago when they combined fish with growing rice. They sent fish down a canal where they landed in rice filled ponds. Fish ate on the rice patties, and the rice patties grew extremely well because of fish waste lingering in the water.

Aquaponics Now

Years later, the aquaponics industry is still being researched and experimented with.

“East Alabama has about 11,000 acres of recreational ponds, watershed ponds and farm ponds that could be turned into an industry,” Cline said. “In west Alabama there are about 17,500 acres of catfish farms in production. And over a hundred million pounds of fish being produced each year.”

A recent finding is West Alabama produces more fish than East Alabama, as Greensboro is the center of the industry. Cline said farmers and landowners are interested in producing fish in cages to have supplemental income.

“Most of them had existing ponds and wanted to make them productive and profitable,” Cline said.

One challenge the fish farming industry has faced is finding a market to sell to. Cline said this is a critical question to ask before throwing fish in a pond, but it is still a big business.

Aquaponics at Auburn University

Possible solutions for the industry are being researched heavily at Auburn University’s E.W. Shell Fisheries Center. The 1,890-acre center uses over 300 ponds and almost 2,000 tanks to research “fish critters.”

Alongside the ponds and tanks, there are four greenhouses on the property. Three are filled with plants, while the other is filled wall to wall with fish tanks.

“Historically, Auburn University houses the largest fisheries research facility in the United States, and possibly even the world,” Cline said.

Students in the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences apply what they learn in the classroom at the fisheries center on campus. Jack Irwin, senior majoring in the Fisheries Management track, said he feels lucky to have so many hands-on experiences weekly.

“One of the best ways to learn is to actually be in the field while you are learning all the information so you can apply it in real time,” said Irwin.

In the major, students can choose from four different fisheries tracks depending on the area of interest. Irwin said all the tracks are similar, and that is what he likes about it. All the classes seem to flow into each other.

Auburn University even graduated the Father of Aquaponics, James Rakocy, in 1980 from their aquaculture program. He started working on the first long term aquaponics project in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Most of today’s aquaponics ventures are based on some form of the work he did there, including what is going on at Auburn today,” Cline said.

Aquaponics Globally

Places like the U.S Virgin Islands, Jamacia and Hawaii are perfect candidates for implementing aquaponics, according to Cline. They don’t have the land available or the right weather to produce plants on a large scale.

“Aquaponics started and is still of interest today because of its potential to supply food to places that might otherwise be a desert,” Cline said.

In response to the interest, Auburn University trains people around the world in aquaponics. So far, students from over 100 countries have learned aquaponics at the E.W. Shell Fisheries Center.

At the fisheries center, Cline said they refer to their globally trained group as the “Auburn Fish Mafia.” People come from around the world to replicate their aquaponics design. Some students stay to continue more research, while others go back to their home country to implement aquaponics.

“One of my classmates went on to become the minister of fisheries in Bhutan. Another one got to be the number two man in agriculture in Mexico. He was in charge of aquaculture for the entire country,” Cline said.

The goal of the aquaponics system at the E.W. Shell fisheries Center was designed so it could be replicated easily. Cline said it is low-tech and can be built anywhere in the world with minimal resources. Honduras, Ecuador, and even orphanages have replicated it.

“There are Auburn fish people all over the world. If you get outside of the United States and start talking about Auburn University, you will find that an equal amount of people know about our fisheries department as they do Auburn football,” Cline said.

Aquaponics Collaboration with Campus Dining

Auburn educates on a global scale, but they educate locally by feeding vegetables grown at the fisheries center to students on campus. The fisheries program partnered with Auburn Campus Dining to create a farm to table experience.

The university sponsors the research and in turn, Cline said Campus Dining purchases the produce at a reduced rate.

“One of the principles of business is to pay yourself first, so why wouldn’t we want to buy produce from ourselves,” said Glenn Loughridge, Director of Campus Dining.

Loughridge was a driving force in bringing the partnership to life. When he was hired at Auburn 10 years ago, he said he wanted to provide good food to students and market it as Auburn grown.

After seeing this idea another university, Loughridge and his team had a vision for what farm to table could look like on Auburn’s campus. Initially, the fisheries center started up an aquaponics system that hadn’t been used for a while and successfully grew cucumbers.

“The university said we will take whatever you can grow, not knowing we could produce 3,000 pounds of cucumbers a month out of one greenhouse,” Cline said.

An overabundance of cucumbers quickly led Loughridge to ask what else could be grown and told the growers that they were stocked on cucumbers for a while.

“At one point our campus chef was begging to not get anymore cucumbers because it was so successful,” Loughridge said.

Next, they experimented with growing tomatoes in the aquaponics system. This was another successful crop, and it is still in high demand on campus today.

“The University said they can take all the tomatoes we grow,” said Cline.

Cherry tomatoes are a small, bite size variety commonly grow at the fisheries center.

“I would put the cherry tomatoes they grow up against anybody else’s. They are so good,” said Loughridge.

Another high use product is romaine lettuce. Growers have been bringing that to campus for several years now.

“It’s a great story to be able to say we are growing food right here on campus. The day its picked it goes to be eaten,” Cline said.

Aquaponics farmers grew several vegetables, and even sent tilapia fish to campus dining. Loughridge said this was not as successful because the size of the fish needed for research did not match the size needed in the kitchen.

He said campus dining is looking forward to the next step of what the fish market with Auburn looks like, and he would love a saltwater fish to serve.

Most of the fresh produce is served at The Edge, a new dining facility on-campus, because it sees the most students. Loughridge said The Edge sees 3,500 to 4,000 students a day.

Brady Fricks, senior at Auburn University majoring in Agriculture Business, is a frequent customer at The Edge. He said he enjoys seeing the collaboration among different areas of campus.

“I love to go to the dining hall and fix a salad that is locally grown by my classmates. Not only am I eating good, but I am also supporting good work,” said Fricks.

The salad bar in the dining hall showcases all the fresh vegetables, and it is eaten quickly. There are also coolers with Auburn grown branding around it to show the fresh produce.

“We have no waste. Nothing ever lasts long enough to go bad; I can tell you that,” Loughridge said.

When Fricks walks into The Edge, he said everyone’s eyes are always drawn to the Market Salad Bar. The options are always limitless, and it is mostly Auburn grown.

The most prized demographic by any corporate group is always 18-to-24-year old’s. During this age, Loughridge said young adults establish product loyalty. He said if you prefer a certain product or brand between that age, then 80% of the time you will stay with it the rest of your life.

“That is a huge thing that we want to grab onto. We have that moment in students’ lives where they are establishing those preferences. We have to serve locally grown produce for them to be able to tell the difference and want it,” Loughridge said.

Through campus dining, Loughridge said they can tell students their food was grown a few miles down the road.