I mentioned in a reply to Rocky_Road that I would post the contents of an article I wrote last week. I am building an Aquaponics Ecosystem, and documenting it in the local newspaper. I am not sure if there is a link I can point to, so here is the full text:

Attitude Adjustment
A reader sent an email asking what I planned to do with the “extra food” from my aquaponics ecosystem. Two questions were asked, so let me answer them, just in case others wonder the same thing.
“What will [I] do with all of [my] excess food?”

Reasonable question, I guess. My ecosystem is intentionally sized to accommodate my family needs.

With the A/B rotation schedule, as well as the potential a particular harvest might fail, some food must be stored to last until the next successful harvest, six, or more, months later. Prudent planning demands we store enough to last until then. That includes seeds for future planting.

So the short answer is I don't anticipate much excess food coming from my ecosystem, and nothing “going to waste.”

If there is, we will do what everyone else does when they harvest more from their garden than they need: give away the excess to friends, family, and neighbors.

The other question bothered me. It implied I need to make sure my ecosystem can feed everyone who happens to come by and demand food. Because, it would “...not be fair for [me] to horde [my] food with hungry people all around...” during, I assume, some kind of crisis.

Unfortunately, in today's entitlement saturated society, many have come to actually believe the rhetoric oozing from the “enslave-the-masses-in-exchange-for-votes” dullards in the beltway. (Tell me, was that too direct?)

I am documenting what I am doing, and the good folks at the Canyon News are providing this documentation to their readers. My readers can take advantage of my research and my mistakes and my calculations, virtually free of charge. Anyone can duplicate this.

I have openly invited others to stop by and check the ecosystem out. We can chat about building their ecosystem, including where to go to get the various things needed to actually pull it off.

Those with the entitlement mindset, believing “we” somehow owe them something, well, here it is!

Now, go and build one.

I am building mine on a shoestring budget. That is, for instance, why I do not have a greenhouse yet. I cannot afford it today. Any of my readers can build an ecosystem exactly the same way I am building mine, and probably do it for less because they have the benefit of my mistakes which they do not have to pay for.

Economically, my family, like most of my readers, is one of those the current administration promised multiple times would not see our taxes go up “one single dime.” We have, like everyone else, “lost” a full two-weeks of income per year to increased taxes. They lied to us all.

I am as busy as anyone; my resources are as limited as anyone; I am doing this in my limited spare time, just like anyone else would. In short, if I can pull this off, any one of my readers could, too.

If anyone can think of a possible future condition where they might go hungry, and are not happy with that prospect, then today is the day to start making plans to fix that. If this ecosystem can help, let's chat.

Remember the parable of “the Little Red Hen?” Those who believe the hen had a right to eat her own bread will be doing something (see 2nd Thessalonians 3: 6 – 10).

I really cannot speak for the rest.