US (CO): Colorado Aquaponics founder got in at the ground floor

In 2009, J.D. Sawyer got laid off. He and his wife, Tawnya, had newborn twins and a 3-year-old daughter. Times were difficult, and J.D. and Tawnya decided to start growing some of their own food in the backyard to help sustain them.

"It was sort of a joke, like, 'Hey, let's turn the kiddie pool into the fish tank and raise our own fish,'" Sawyer said. "Then, we started poking around with it on the internet and discovered this aquaponics thing."

That aquaponics thing turned into a new business for J.D. and a way to give back to the community, many of whom were also suffering after the economic downturn. The Sawyers founded Colorado Aquaponics, which opened farms at The GrowHaus, a nonprofit in Denver's low-income Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, and The Mental Health Center in Denver. Colorado Aquaponics also branched into The Aquaponics Source, a business designed to help others start their own aquaponics systems either on a home or an industrial scale.

Sawyer said when they got started with Colorado Aquaponics, there were only a handful of other people in the country who were experts about aquaponics. In the time since they started, the industry has bloomed, largely because it's an effective way to grow a lot of food in a small area.

The educational aspect of Colorado Aquaponics is one of the most important. Aquaponics is a way to get a new generation excited about agriculture, Sawyer said, and way for younger children to see that farming can be exciting.

"When I get fish tanks in the classroom, or when we do field trips and (kids) come to the farm, it's kind of a, 'wow, this is pretty exciting.' The kids get engaged," Sawyer said. "We really need to get kids excited about growing food again."

Read more at The Fence Post