Aquaponics and global food challenges

As the world’s population grows, the demands for increased food pro- duction expand, and as the stresses on resources such as land, water and nutrients become ever greater, there is an urgent need to find alternative, sustainable and reliable methods to provide this food. The current strategies for supplying more produce are neither ecologically sound nor address the issues of the circular econ- omy of reducing waste whilst meeting the WHO’s Millennium Development Goals of eradicating hunger and poverty by 2015. Aquaponics, a technology that integrates aquaculture and hydroponics, provides part of the solution. Although aquaponics has developed considerably over recent decades, there are a number of key issues that still need to be fully addressed, including the development of energy-efficient systems with optimized nutrient recycling and suitable pathogen controls. There is also a key issue of achieving profitability, which includes effective value chains and efficient supply chain management. Legislation, licensing and policy are also keys to the success of future aquaponics, as are the issues of education and research, which are discussed across this book

Aquaponics in the Built Environment

Aquaponics’ potential to transform urban food production has been documented in a rapid increase of academic research and public interest in the field. To translate this publicity into real-world impact, the creation of commercial farms and their relationship to the urban environment have to be further examined. This research has to bridge the gap between existing literature on growing system performance and urban metabolic flows by considering the built form of aquaponic farms. To assess the potential for urban integration of aquaponics, existing case studies are classified by the typology of their building enclosure, with the two main categories being greenhouses and indoor environments. This classification allows for some assumptions about the farms’ performance in their context, but a more in-depth life cycle assessment (LCA) is necessary to evaluate different configurations. The LCA approach is presented as a way to inventory design criteria and respective strategies which can influence the environmental impact of aquaponic systems in the context of urban built environments

Free trade and its implications for hunger

Free trade comprises numerous forms of elimination of trade barriers among different regions of the world. Usually, the intent is to eliminate trade barriers through construction of trade agreements that usually involve various types of international economic integration agreements – namely, free trade agreements, customs unions, common markets, economic unions, etc. The elimination of trade barriers among countries and regions, mainly in countries in development, promotes economic development by bringing new countries with competitive advantages to international commerce. As a consequence, the international supply of food generally increases; at the beginning the prices decrease and allow an increase in the demand for food, which means construction (ceteris paribus) of a new market equilibrium higher than the initial one, which will contribute to food security and reduction of hunger around the world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Equitable food distribution and sustainable development

Equitable Food Distribution (EFD) means producing, processing, and distributing food in a timely way to ensure food security for the entire population by the safe and healthy food access to all segments of the population on sustainable conditions from production to the global distribution. This phenomenon could occur in situation of crisis and emergency and also in poor regions with a strong deficit to access to secure and health foods. In both situations contributes to the malnutrition and/or hunger with strong negative impacts in the health of populations where vulnerable people are most affected.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Value addition of agricultural production to meet the sustainable development goals

Value addition is the creation of value at different stages, by different actors throughout the value chain by add value of agricultural production. Value added may be related to quality, costs, delivery times, delivery flexibility, and innovativeness of agricultural products, among other characteristics. The size of value added is decided by the end customer’s willingness to pay. Opportunities to add value depend on a number of factors, such as market characteristics; institutional, social, and environmental conditions; and technological capabilities of the actors involved in that process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio