Urban aquaponics farm brings sustainable food to the heart of Bellingham
Urban Aquaponics Bellingham WA | Rachel Showalter |
IMAGE: New Mexico Tamale Company owner Dora Ruiz picks up freshly harvested cilantro for her restaurant from FarmWild’s aquaponic farm on Sept. 16. Rachel Showalter The Bellingham Herald
Bellingham is now home to its first urban indoor aquaponics farm, bringing a hyperlocal and sustainable farming method to the city’s center. FarmWild-Bellingham, a Whatcom County business that has supported local restaurants for years, recently moved into town in an effort to get closer to its customer base and expand operations.
“We’re trying to make an urban farm that really pushes the envelope of sustainability as far as it can go,” FarmWild Founder Brian Rusk told The Herald. Moving into town helps the business cut down on delivery costs and time while also reducing gas and food miles. At its new location at 1818 Franklin St., the farm is now within a few miles of dozens of restaurants and tens of thousands of people. “We are excited to bring FarmWild to our downtown community,” Rusk said. “Our mission is to cultivate a future with clean air, clean water, clean energy and healthy, clean food for our community. We believe that innovative solutions like urban aquaponics are key to building a more resilient and sustainable food system for Bellingham and beyond.” FarmWild utilizes a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics to grow food, employing a closed-loop system that involves raising fish to cultivate plants in water without the need for soil. The fish waste provides a natural fertilizer for the plants, while the plants purify the water for the fish.
FarmWild supplies local restaurants with fresh basil, cilantro, lettuce, mixed salad greens, chard, ginger, turmeric and other herbs. The fresh produce will also soon be available for purchase at the farm’s on-site farm stand. New Mexico Tamale Company owner Dora Ruiz is a longtime customer of FarmWild, purchasing fresh cilantro for her restaurant from the farm every week. This week she picked up about seven pounds of the herb, which takes about five or six weeks to grow, according to Rusk.
“I grew up in the food industry, and my mother said, ‘Always think outside you and help your surrounding businesses.’ So that’s what we do,” Ruiz told The Herald. “So when we found out about this, I was all over it. We try to get everything local — jalapeños, mushrooms, cilantro. That’s what it’s about — hold hands and grow together.” The 3,000-square-foot grow room has almost 5,000 square feet of vertical space for plants to grow. About 500 koi fish help fill about 10,000 gallons of water with nutrients, which facilitates the growth of up to 500 pounds of basil and 500 heads of lettuce each week. FarmWild can generate about the same amount of yearly produce grown on 2-3 acres of traditional farm land, within just 1/10th of an acre. This method uses up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture, according to Rusk.
It also allows for year-round cultivation of produce in a controlled indoor environment, free from pesticides and herbicides. “In the middle of December when all of Bellingham’s lettuce is coming from southern California and Arizona, you can just walk right in and cut your own lettuce head and walk away with the freshest lettuce you’ve ever eaten,” Rusk told The Herald. “It’s fresh food, right in the middle of the city, readily available and year-round.” Rusk said he believes FarmWild to be the only commercial scale, indoor vertical urban aquaponics farm in the country.
Original Article: https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/business/article312136498.html
