US: Verticulture wants to spread aquaponics around the world

Verticulture is one of three aquaponic farms in New York City; the other ones are Edenworks and OKO farms. All of them have two things in common: they are located in Brooklyn, and their goal is to bring local and sustainably grown produce to the city. There appears to be a market — by New York state’s estimates, New York City alone has $600 million worth of unmet annual demand for local food.

Verticulture, founded in 2011, first opened on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Exchange Building in downtown Brooklyn. Miles Crettien, Peter Spartos, and Ryan Morningstar, the three co-founders, decided to dismantle it when Hurricane Irene approached. They killed all the tilapia and threw a massive fish taco party.

After raising $22,000 online, including on Indiegogo, the farm reopened in March 2015 in a 450-square-foot room in the old Pfizer factory, a giant manufacturing plant in Bedford-Stuyvesant that was shut down in 2008 and is now the epicenter of food startups. Trays of basil are stacked up 10 feet high and there are two big, black tanks filled with water and grey tilapia.

The farm is powered by 150 to 180 tilapia and grows Genovese and Thai basil on floating rafts propped up by styrofoam, under incredibly bright fluorescent lights. About 30 to 40 pounds of basil are produced weekly, and then sold to local retailers like Foragers in Chelsea and Dumbo, the Food Coop in Park Slope, and The Green Grape in Clinton Hill, as well as FreshDirect’s offshoot Foodkick.

Read more at The Verge