Did you know that 2/3
of the water consumed on earth is used to grow food?
It is estimated in 20 years the active demand for water will
increase by 40% due to a growing world population and
economy even as supplies of fresh, clean water are impacted
negatively by climate change. Increasing water demand
requires we change how water is used to meet the demand by
boosting cost effective efficiencies and lessening water
intensity use specifically in our agricultural practices.
The first project of Grow Your Own Meal™ (GYOM™) is to design,
build and operate a community based, “proof of concept” food
production facility. The central focus of the growing
environment is aquaponics,
the symbiotic cultivation of plants
and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment.
A principal advantage of aquaponics based growing
is aquaponics uses 1/20th of the water necessary to produce an equivalent crop grown via open field farming
techniques.
Aquaponic systems do not discharge or exchange water. The
systems rely on the natural relationship between the aquatic
animals and the plants to maintain the environment. Water is
only added to replace water loss from absorption by the
plants, evaporation into the air, or the removal of biomass
from the system.
grow your own meal, inc., a Colorado-based 501(C)3 non-profit | copyright 2009 - 2011 all rights reserved
The GYOM mission is to develop, promote and teach
sustainable, healthy food production solutions utilizing renewable
energy
and energy efficiencies, less water for food production and state-of-art
plant science, technology and engineering.
