Living Machines

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The system isn?t perfect, yet. As tropical fish, tilapia need water heated to 82? F?an expensive proposition in Vermont. The team has tried raising yellow perch, a cold-water fish, but their greater need for animal protein upsets the system?s efficiency.

The real solution may lie in tying these living machines into a larger system. One example is Burlington?s Intervale project?the nation?s first agriculturally based ecopark. Once a wasteland of old cars and other junk, the 700-acre area known as the Intervale is now a patchwork of small farms, composting facilities, and open space. It will soon include food processing facilities and greenhouses for winter farming, reports Jill Bamburg in Yes! (Fall 2002). One greenhouse will house an OAI fish farm, this time warmed with excess heat generated by a neighboring electrical power plant that runs on wood waste from Vermont?s mills.

?The more biological complexities you develop in a system, the more robust it becomes,? explains OAI?s David Demarest. The Intervale system will use straw from nearby fields and grains from the local Wind Harvest Brewery?s homegrown hops and fruit. The larger facility and inexpensive heat should double the harvest of both mushrooms and tilapia, and perhaps reach its goal of financial viability. Simple, smart, and sustainable?just like a loko kuapa.

Lisa Hamilton is a freelance writer living in Mill Valley, California.

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