Eric Maundu wants to put fish farming in every kitchen, or more specifically, he has created a smart aquaponics system that can be flat packed and set up as easily as IKEA furniture. He’s also scaled up the aquarium in hopes of reaching urbanites in areas with no local agriculture.
source/image(PrtSc): Kirsten Dirksen
On an industrial West Oakland lot, he turned a shipping container into a massive fish tank as part of a large-scale aquaponics setup he hopes can be easily deployed to food deserts.The tech behind this food-chain self-reliance is aquaponics: a closed-loop system where fish waste from farmed fish provides nutrients for plants grown hydroponically (“without soil”), which in turn purify the water./via/read more: Kirsten Dirksen
It uses no pesticides and 10% of the water of conventional plants.Trained in industrial electronics and computer science, Kenyan-born Maundu has spent the past decade making his systems smarter (i.e. computer-controlled and monitored).
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“The combination of growing up in deserts and an engineering background puts me in a unique position to address basic human needs using modern technologies”.Using his custom-made board combining Linux and an Arduino-style chip with more than 10 shields, he relies on sensors to monitor all aspects of an aquaponics garden (pH, water levels, humidity, light, etc).//Kirsten Dirksen
