Saturday, October 8, 2011

FFF Team Meets with City Council Staff in DC


Strategic Program Support for City Government
Today a team from MicroVenture Support and our Family Fish Farms Network met with Mr. Mark Long, Director of Constituent Services for Councilman at Large Vincent Orange.  This was our first meeting as a team.  I have known Mr. Long from other community activities and the mayoral campaign here in the city.  Present at the meeting:  J. Peloquin, L. Yahr, R. Tarrant, and Rob Ramson.  Mr. Tarrant is a former program officer at Covenant House (when our mayor was its executive director) and Mr. Ramson is a local businessman and community development advocate.
Public Private Sector Enterprise - NEW Green Jobs
The meeting was a great success in that Mr. Long (a former investment banker) really understood The Family Fish Farm Network model for bringing decent green jobs and economic prosperity to our communities.  This is a first step in engaging the city as an active supporter of our community economic development strategy:  The Family Fish Farms Network. We will advise as contacts and discussions continue.
Social Media Grows Fish
We have been active on Linkedin on our Family Fish Farms Group and others as well.  I am beginning to see more and more interest.  One of my recent contacts, a builder of trash stream recycling systems is working on an aquaponics development proposal at the request of a nearby mayor.  We are to draft an engineering specification and feasibility study in support of the eventual award and to build out the system as well.  I will advise as more details become available ... that is if this actually matures into a real project.
We also continue to blog and refine our social media strategy.  We are still limited by resources and skill but we will persavere and solve the minor issues that exist.  As you can tell we are making real progress.

Friday, October 7, 2011

A Repost from Linkedin's "Aquaponics Sustainable Farming Forum"

Commercial Aquaponics Needs a National Voice


When it comes to food production, even the largest scale aquaponics farms are lightweights compared to the Agribiz giants. If we are to have a real voice at the table we need two things. A national commercial success and a vocal, well funded advocacy effort here in Washington.

The good news is that we have logic on our side. All the primal indicators are with us. ... most of which are economic. We are also a triple bottom line business: Economically Viable, Environmentally Sound, and Socially Responsible. We have a fledgling national organization (it supports both Aquaponics and the more traditional Hydroponics) the organization is called: The Recirculating Farms Coalition. (www.recirculatingfarms.org) Marianne Cufon is the Exec. Dir.

We believe in small ... we believe in commercial. Our preference is for a distributive system of aquaponics micro farms all commercial and branded under a single name. The is what we intend The Family Fish Farms Network to achieve. We do NOT feel competitive with anyone and will open our minds and resources to anyone who wishes to pursue this most elegant and logical solution to a number of societal problems.  The list of benefits runs down the left hand side of this blog.  Read 'em and Cheer!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Vote for Investment in Aquaponics

White House Petition Initiative  Go to: http://wh.gov/4uO 
 PLEASE send this link out to your networks ...PLEASE!

We just launched a petition on the  white house web site asking for favorable tax incentives for investment in aquaponics systems to offset the cost of pollution, the carbon cost of food and as Marianne Cufone just published on the Recirculating Farms Coalition facebook page ...

U.S. PIRG put out a piece on childhood obesity, subsidies and growing commodity crops like soybeans and corn for sweeteners and high-fat oils. "Between 1995 and 2010, $16.9 billion in tax dollars subsidized four common food additives - corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and soy oils." Would be great if recirc farms got that kind of help from the feds to provide healthy fresh food! http://www.uspirg.org/home/reports/report-archives/tax--budget-policy/tax--budget-policy--reports/apples-to-twinkies

Our Petition could go a long way towards getting the attention of policy wonks in the White House ... well, it might?