Unpublished Paper
Food safety, economics and environmental impacts of aquaponics in Iowa
Leopold Center Completed Grant Reports
Project ID
XP2014-06
Abstract
Aquaponics offer promise as an alternative crop and protein production system for smaller farm operations. This project examined several aspects of aquaponic production: food safety, how UV treatments might mitigate food safety issues, what levels of profitability might be attained, and what the environmental impacts are for aquaponics operations.
Key Question
1) Can aquaponics be profitable in Iowa? 2) Is aquaponics truly environmentally friendly? 3) What food safety threats are there for aquaponics, and how can we mitigate them?
Findings
The PIs approached these questions by building six research-scale aquaponics systems and evaluating the resource use and production yields from these systems. Using that production, the team modeled what a scaled-up system would look like and evaluated it for economic efficiencies through a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). The results indicated there is hope for profitability at a commercial scale.
Principal Investigator(s)
D. Allen Pattillo
Co-Investigator(s)
Kurt A. Rosentrater; Angela M. Shaw
Year of Grant Completion
2016
Disciplines
Citation Information
Allen Pattillo. "Food safety, economics and environmental impacts of aquaponics in Iowa" (2016) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/allen-pattillo/5/