Organic aquaculture standards

Right at this moment, we (myself and a group of folks in several states including Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, and other places) are working on organic aquaculture and aquaponics standards. I have written a draft document for organic aquaculture standards which is being reviewed by this informal group of professionals, scholars, biologists, business owners and practitioners, which is continually growing in number. I have testified before the USDA public hearings on the Organic Food Production Act proposed rules, and members of our group have submitted public commentary to the USDA to have aquaculture included in the USA national set of standards. We have edited and refined the draft upward and onward, and now it is looking like a set of actual certification standards, rather than a technical explanation and position paper, which the original draft I prepared really was.

This is going to take some time to get established across the country, in the various states (United States), and internationally. Some certification organizations have standards in place or in draft form, but according to my extensive investigations, nobody (USA) grows organically CERTIFIED fish or other aquaculture products. There are some "Natural" or "Environmentally Friendly" labeled salmon products imported from Scotland but nothing in the USA, as far as I know. I predict that organic aquaculture certification, in the earliest stages, will likely vary among states and regions as farms begin to pick it up and practice it.

I have found that there is much misunderstanding, misinformation and paradigm blinders to overcome. Some of that may relate with Luddite (anti-technological, anti-science) philosophical views among certain elements in the broad spectrum of people and belief systems within the organic "community". Overall, however, the enthusiasm and positive response has been good. Ask anybody...people really want a good, clean, pollution-free fish, shrimp, (crab, frog,alligator, or kelp!) to eat, which has been grown in a way that recycles or stabilizes resources such as water and nutrients and does not trash the environment... that is a very basic definition of organic culture, and it fits aquaponics perfectly.

What's it gonna take? The organic community has to be educated. They must allow themselves to "raise their consciousness", undergo a paradigm shift, whatever you what to call it, to consider aquaculture water as the resource counterpart to the soil- which is fixed in "traditional" organic jargon. In the other camp, the aquaculturists have to be educated into the jargon, original intent, elements, and spirit of organic agriculture before it got so tangled up in legalistic regulations, so that at least we are all talking, even if technical disagreements may arise- and they will, such as the manure vs compost controversy which we haggled about not too long ago. But reason and science prevailed there, and it will with other issues. Let the truth be known that aquaculture IS agriculture, but not all manure is the same (microbiologically speaking)

Together, I have faith that these knowledgable folks- in aquaculture and organic agriculture can recognize common elements in both areas until they see that their pet areas are actually artificial boundaries that exist only in their mind.

Since aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of USA agriculture, the "organic" folks who think that soil culture is the only way to grow crops organically, must be educated- with gentleness, and respect for all that they have done in the past as farmers and "activists", (many of them like to be called "activists", since they may or may not farm anything at this present point, or perhaps ever, in their life) or they will sadly be left behind, alas, in obscurity and antiquity. Not alas, but, hurray!, since progress marches on, with or without the "progressives"

Progress: We are making progress on the organic feed- especially for Tilapia, and I will be able to comment further on that subject in the next few weeks, as the first of hopefully many regional feed mills becomes organically certified. I know I am not the only one trying to accomplish this- Gordon, didn't you have Bob Leader or somebody working on this in your neck of the woods there in Arkansas?

There already is in existence a commercial aquaponics company that grows organically certified plants fertilized from fish culture water. Without mentioning names, I will say that what I found out about that enterprise is that the organization which granted that organic certification had some really bizzarre notions about hydroponics, which they were vehemently opposed to having included in the realm of all things organic. Consequently, they (the organic certifiers) came up with a pretzel logic set of standards that allowed the plants grown in fish culture water to be considered organic, but not for plants grown with water that had been fertilized in any other manner, including organic fertilizer. (Eg., fish emulsion, blood meal, yada, yada), because then you might have somebody try to grow evil, "technological" hydroponic plants with organic fertilizers. That enterprise does not have organically certified fish yet, but give it some time. Things are changing even as we speak.

In the mean time, I suggest to the group that you try to locate and price locally or regionally grown organic grains in your area and to work diligently to network with those growers and with local feed mills. Based on my experience (many phone calls, talking with plant managers, grain brokers, and sales managers), local feed mills will likely resist any suggestion of becoming organically certified due in part to fear of the unknown, and will likely express skepticism about producing a cost effective fish food made from organic grains. If feed mills simply wont work for your particular situation, try feeding the fish your own blend of organic grains, sprouts, etc. This may take some risky experimentation. Some whole grains may not be conducive to efficient digestion and nutrition. Fortunately, many third world projects, including Peace Corps, have successfully developed local grain feeds for Tilapia- rice bran, you name it. And the literature is out there.

Ted