US (CT): Aquaponic farming coming to Meriden
Armed with a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, the four partners that make up Trifecta Ecosystems in Glastonbury have already brought aquaponics to the ARC of Meriden-Wallingford on Research Parkway, where people with disabilities grow strawberries, jalapeño peppers, Swiss chard, and microgreens.
The 8,000-square-foot space at the Meriden Enterprise Center on Pratt Street will soon house 3,500 square feet of vertical farming space and a research and development area with the help of some renovations and $70,000 in lighting. In addition to commercial farming, Trifecta Ecosystems’ mission is to share its technology, said partner Eric Francis.
“This location allows us to do vertical farming and sell systems to schools,” Francis said. “This will be a mixed use, with farming, research, an open area for light manufacturing, to bring schools in on field trips, workshops, a pop-up restaurant and farm-to-table events.”
Francis and the other partners, Spencer Curry, Kieran Foran and Andrew Ingalls, have developed aquaponic systems for people with developmental disabilities in Bristol and in other cities. The group is focused on education and technological research and outreach activities, a STEM curriculum to share with students and other groups of unlikely farmers, including ex-convicts and drug addicts, for whom farming has been shown to be a therapeutic aid to recovery.
Read more at My Record Journal