Nicole Faires

Aquaponics, the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, is an old idea that has been more recently transformed into something that looks like the picture above (which came from Wikipedia).  Inspired by permaculture, which in turn was inspired by nature and the chinampas of the Aztec’s, aquaponics seems like it could be the way of the future.  (Have you seen The Aviator?  When I see or hear the phrase ‘way of the future’ I hear it in Leonardo diCaprio’s voice so I try to use it as much as possible.)

Permaculture strategically uses polyculture for our own benefit.  In nature, a pond has fish and plants that all mutually benefit each other, the plants feeding off the nitrogen of the fish waste, and the fish using the water that the plants filter and eating some of the plants.  Harnessing this cycle can be done in more natural way, by building a pond, encouraging a native species of fish to thrive, cultivating plants that are edible and will help the fish, and then gleaning from the excess so that the balance of the pond will continue without effort.

Or, we could do this in a controlled way like in the photo above and increase production.  The plants and the fish don’t have to live together in order to mutually benefit each other.  There’s a fish crises in the world today.  Fish are so healthy for humans to eat, and so yummy, that we have overfished and contaminated their environment to such an extent that there are doubts they will ever recover fully.  Aquaculture in tanks is a viable solution to this problem, but there is massive amounts of fish waste that must be dealt with, just like on any other farm, and energy costs, and water filtration, and a host of other issues.  Hydroponics is a very promising and popular way of growing vegetables, but it requires chemicals to grow the plants, and they just don’t taste quite as good.  Combine the two, and the waste of the fish can go to feed the plants, which then filter the water, and the farmer gets two crops instead of one without using any chemicals.  Not to mention they taste better too and the farmer has used only 2% of the water normally used in agriculture.

Even on a small scale, aquaponics seems like the way to go.  A head of lettuce normally takes about 60 days to mature, but in an aquaponics system can take only 20.  That’s how long it normally takes for us to get baby greens, so I can only imagine how long that would take.  We could grow three times the amount of food in the same space of time.  And, you can stack the growing beds like in the picture above, giving you three times the space.  I’m terrible at math but I’m fairly sure that’s a lot of food in small space.

We finally got the big snow we were promised, and now my 15 or so garlic plants are tucked snugly in their little igloos.

Two of these eggs are regular large white Western Family brand.  Three of these eggs are large brown GoldEgg Organic. See the difference?  The two Western Family egg yolks are bigger, and a beautiful bright orange.  The GoldEgg Organic yolks are a pale yellow and much smaller.  If this were a good judge of a healthy chicken, I would think that the Western Family chickens were doing better.  Let’s find out.

I did a bit of research.  Western Family eggs here in BC are likely to come from Daybreak Farms, located in Terrace, BC.  Daybreak chickens are not free-range, but they are the only egg farm in BC that does not have to vaccinate their chickens.  They also make their own quality feed free of any antibiotics or additives.  They do all of their own processing and grading and deliver direct to stores under the Western Family brand, which means that these two eggs traveled about 1400 km (or 869 miles).  BC is a big place.

The GoldEgg Organic eggs are produced by National Egg, Inc.  These particular eggs were organic and free-run, but not free-range.  This means that they aren’t in cages and can run around inside an enormous barn, but they don’t go outside. The chickens are fed certified organic grains, which is basically the same diet as the Western Family eggs.  According to organic standards, hens must have access to the outside but this requirement is very loose and according to the GoldEgg website must not be any real access.

I found an interesting relationship between the two companies. Daybreak is considered a small farm - only 30,000 hens versus the usually factory amount of 1 million or more. When Wal-Mart came to Terrace, BC, Daybreak offered to supply the eggs but quickly got a phone call from National Egg.  National Egg told them that only they could supply Wal-mart’s eggs, so unless they did so under the National Egg brand, they couldn’t do it.  Daybreak made the deal, but has continued to operate independently. In this way, they are still a small farm who supplies eggs to Western Family.

So where did the GoldEggs come from?  In BC, they are likely to come from Golden Valley, what National Egg calls a partner.  Golden Valley is owned by Fresh Start Food and L. H. Gray & Son.  Fresh Start is a corporation owned by egg producers, and makes 75% of BC’s eggs.  They never say where their eggs come from, but one of the largest organic free run producers is Burnbrae Farms, which has locations across Canada.  It is doubtful that these particular eggs came from BC since they aren’t carrying one of the local labels, and so they came from much farther than 1400 km away.

So what’s the difference?  It seems to me that Daybreak feeds their hens much, much better. I also think that Daybreak hens probably live in cages.  National Egg doesn’t feed their hens as well and is obviously more interested in profits than sustainability.  I wonder if National Egg has to vaccinate their organic BC chickens, or is Daybreak referring to just conventional hens?  It’s such a grey area… who would you support?  

EDIT: I should also add, that while I would like to purchase from a small farm nearer to me, there is not enough supply to meet demand and those eggs are hard to find.  They are most often sold out.