An Omaha man uses ancient methods by pulling nutrients from fish water to grow crops. Greg Fripp is the founder of Whispering Roots. It’s a non-profit organization that grows plants and vegetables in old fish water.
?We focus on using Aquaponics, aquaculture, hydroponics, and urban agriculture to address hunger issues both urban and rural? Fripp said.
Besides feeding homeless children Whispering Roots’ mission is to teach school children to college students about Aquaponics.
?We use agriculture to teach students in classrooms. We work with everyone from kindergarten to the college level teaching them how agriculture affects hunger, dealing with nutrition issues and community issues and solve problems through agriculture,? Fripp said.
Fripp said it?s extremely important to teach children about Agriculture.
?Our goal when we go into a community is to teach the community how to be self-sufficient. We teach them then we leave and they take over teaching others,? Fripp said.
He said the Omaha organization wants to expand into Iowa.
?We were just touring the central campus in Des Moines looking in the aquaculture work. They have a fantastic program and so we are looking at taking some of their techniques and use them to teach our students,? Fripp said.
Fripp said the whole process of growing plants and vegetables in old fish water is nothing new.
?The Aztecs were doing this. We use aquaponics using fish water to grow vegetables to get more efficient growing. We especially target places were people do not have access to good land. Then we can use the water from our fish tanks to produce quality vegetables,? Fripp said.
He said they can grow cucumbers, beets, tomatoes and edible flowers. Fripp adds agriculture is a powerful tool to address really complex food, hunger, and nutrition issues.
