Aquaponics Reception at the LOHAS Forum

I remember back in my AeroGrow days hauling buckets of water across the vast show floor of Chicago’s McCormick Place before the annual Housewares show.  I also remember the worry that came with shipping plants across the country in cardboard boxes and expecting them to look perky and smile for the crowds.  And what were the chances that all those ripe tomatoes were going to survive the journey on the vine?!  I remember muttering on more than one occasion “my next job is going to deal with widgets.  If I ever go back into a field that involves live plants someone just shoot me”.

Fast forward to last week and the official unveiling of our new AquaBundance Year-Round Gardening System at the LOHAS Forum in Boulder (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability).  A widget?  Not exactly.  Live plants?  Plenty, plus the additional stress of live fish.  Will I ever learn my lesson? Probably never.  Once a plant person, always a plant person, it seems.

Planted AquaBundance Grow Bed

The Forum was tremendous and we are glad we went. An auspicious gathering of the green movement elite which created the perfect venue for highlighting the sustainable benefits of both aquaponics in general and AquaBundance in particular.  The message of using 10% of the water of traditional agriculture truly resonated with this group, although they struggled a bit with the notion of being out of the soil entirely (ironically they showed the documentary “Dirt” as part of the Forum curriculum.  Tough competition that likes to play dirty – I couldn’t resist).  One of the keynote speakers, futurist Faith Popcorn, talked about how we will soon be moving from the Green Movement to the Blue Movement as water becomes an increasingly prominent environmental focus.  Another speaker, Dr. Alan Greene, talked about poor diet and toxins in the soil contributing to obesity trends, cancer, and chronic illness in small children.  As often happens in this kind of event my hand started twitching and taking on a life of it’s own as it felt the need to raise itself so I could declare “but there IS an answer, and it’s aquaponics!  Completely organic vegetables and protein right in your backyard, using a fraction of the water your dirt based garden uses”.  But I remained silent, satisfied with the occasional knowing glances from my husband, because I knew that most of these people would be coming through the exhibit area and would see AquaBundance.

AquaBundance system (unplanted)

We definitely got a lot of attention.  People were drawn to the live plants, the sound of running water, and the promise of fish if they got close enough to peer inside the tank.  Their response was almost entirely positive (we just couldn’t convince the PETA representative that the fish were probably happy) and we made some very interesting connections.  There were discussions of United Nations applications, commercial greenhouse applications, school applications, and medical marijuana.  People envisioned it in their apartments and condos, their greenhouses, their decks, and their kid’s schools.  It was a heady couple of days.

Now we are home, recovered, and ready to get down to business!  AquaBundance is up on our website, with a wonderful deal for those who pre-order before we start shipping in August.  Come check it out and let us know what you think!

I’ve also created a short video which includes some stills and video of the product, as well as  a little video from the show.  Enjoy!

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