You can recycle , drive a small car and try to eat organic foods. But you can also go further and raise fish
with eco-sustainable technology and have a garden with natural fertilization and
own an apartment in a city like New York. Christopher Toole and Anya
Pozdeeva, two former bankers who founded the Big Apple Securities Company aquaponic and Education (SAVE, for its acronym in English), have a
story to tell. "We call it 'beyond organic,'" said Pozdeeva, 39. The technique aquaponics is a sustainable food production, which
combines fish farming (aquaculture)
with the cultivation of plants in water
(hydroponics). It is a perfect system, ecological miniature
that can produce healthy food in a small apartment with simple equipment, they
said. "We
built our system from garbage cans," said Pozdeeva,
a thin woman who emigrated from the Siberian region of Russia 20 years ago and
still speaks English with a slight accent. If
raising fish in an apartment in New York seems unlikely, Toole and Pozdeeva
seem even more improbable as urban ecological pioneers.
Until recently were bankers who met working long hours among the
skyscrapers of Manhattan, far from bleak Bronx where they currently live. But after the financial meltdown of 2008
brought down the banking sector, Toole, vice president of Sovereign Bank,
discovered he had a serious eye problem, which he said was caused by stress. Both he and Pozdeeva were very disappointed
with their careers. "They know how to squeeze
every last drop from you and then throw you away," said Pozdeeva. "We wanted to keep our feet on the ground," said Toole, 47, gray beard and hat pigskin. Instead, put your feet in the water.
Toole knew a little about fish by his childhood summers with his
father scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts
(northeast), a famous centre for research in marine biology in the Cape Cod
area aquaponics, he estimated, would allow him to join the sustainable food
production with what he hopes is a business model also sustainable. A risky idea? Yes "But understanding risk is something they teach you a lot in
the banking sector," he said.
Each week Toole and Pozdeeva aquaponics technique taught about 80
children at the headquarters of SAVE in a community center in the South Bronx,
one of the more socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the United
States.
During one recent class, the couple engaged
in what young people do; everything from cleaning fish tanks to planting mint,
cabbage and other vegetables. Children, despite being more familiar with the
concrete jungle of the Bronx, were soon involved. "I have fear that the fishes
will come and bite me" he said, laughing at a little girl as she put her
hand on the top of a barrel with large tilapia.
When two kids gardening set aside to start a
fight with mud, Pozdeeva calmly intervened."The earth is precious,"
he said. The boys went back to gardening. Toole said there are several types of
fish farming in their farms, but tilapias are best. They require 19-38 liters
of water and in nine months can be eaten. They can be totally vegetarian and
seem to like duckweed, a plant of green beans and Pozdeeva Toole collected from
ponds in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. "It's illegal, but on the other
hand these plants are choking ponds, so you could argue that we are doing them
a favor," said Toole on his expeditions to collect this type of plant.
In addition to teaching, Toole and Pozdeeva
sell small fingerlings at 5 dollars apiece through its www.vifarms.com website,
Facebook and other websites. Just a year ago they created SAVE, but Toole and
Pozdeeva have many more fish to fry. Toole plans partnerships with chefs, other
urban fish breeders, and consultancy work for newcomers. But after fleeing global
banking, it does not seem like working for anyone, or "selling our
soul" as he says. It seems unlikely to happen.
Pozdeeva has discovered that fungi, raised on
a simple piece of cardboard, thrive in the same conditions of warmth, darkness
and humidity that favor the breeding of tilapia. And Toole is excited to diversify
into the production of honey. "Right now I have 10,000 bees in our living
room," he said. "So not only am I sleeping with fish, but with
bees."
In fact, the only thing that could hinder the
green revolution, it seems, are particularly strict rules of New York in
connection with pets in apartment buildings. "Basically, we need to be
somewhat discreet," said Pozdeeva on domestic colonies of fish. "But
that's the beauty of the fish."
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