RE: Considering standard of living (was Re: Land of let's only talk about whats wrong with the US)

From: Barbara Lamar (barbaralamar@sanmarcos.net)
Date: Sun Aug 24 2003 - 11:32:29 MDT

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    Mark Walker wrote:

    >I've looked at commercial units that sell in
    > the $500 range based on the same principles as you describe. While I won't
    > dispute the efficiency of the breakdown, it seems to me to yield a less
    > useable product. I use the duckweed to feed the carp and cichlids in my
    > system. Duckweed is amazing--it can double its own weight under ideal
    > conditions. I realize that you use the night soil to fertilize,
    > but I think
    > using soil is ultimately less efficient than using hydroponics (actually
    > aquaponics)--soil is old school man. ; ) Thanks for the feedback.

    Water hyacinths also double their weight in an incredibly short time
    (they're considered a horrible nuisance when they get loose in a lake,
    because they quickly cover the whole surface). I totally agree that
    hydroponics is more efficient than soil in many cases, and hydroponic
    gardens can be as beautiful as soil based gardens (the visual aesthetics are
    almost as important to me as the efficiency; I find that generally the two
    are positively correlated). I believe even fruit trees are being grown
    hydroponically these days.

    My experience has been that while a pond or tank is extremely valuable and
    more effficient at producing calories per cubic foot than soil, it's more
    expensive to grow food such as squash, tomatoes, and broccoli hydroponically
    than on soil (and I'm not even sure you can grow root crops such as potatoes
    and sweet potatoes hydroponically), and that it takes less space to deal
    with human waste using thermophilic composting (to quantify it -- for one
    adult and one teenager, the space required for the compost pile was four
    feet cubed -- this handled not only our bodily wastes but also kitchen
    waste, waste paper, etc.), and that water purification is not as good at
    getting rid of pathogens as thermophilic composting; but it's likely that
    the techniques I've used for water-based purification are not the most
    efficient, and you've inspired me to do further research and
    experimentation.

    Barbara



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