Aquaponics used as solution to California drought

Global Business

Food prices in California are likely to rise amid a severe drought there. The agricultural industry in the US state of California is struggling to maintain output as water supplies vanish. CCTV America’s May Lee takes a look at how some innovative farmers are growing produce using a fraction of the water it usually takes.

Aquaponics used as solution to California drought

Food prices in California are likely to rise amid a severe drought there. The agricultural industry in the US state of California is struggling to maintain output as water supplies vanish. CCTV America's May Lee takes a look at how some innovative farmers are growing produce using a fraction of the water it usually takes.


Adam Navidi is a chef, inventor, farmer and mastermind behind Future Foods Farms. Everything at his facility is grown using Aquaponics. The science of using greenhouses, live fish, no soil and very little water.

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The fish are fed organic, nutrient-rich aqua plants. Their waste is then filtered with water through an irrigation system to the plants. Some float on recycled styrofoam lids others on simple trays and some grow in volcanic rock and shale. And because the water is naturally filtered by the plants and then cycled back into the fish tanks, this aquaponics farm is a self-sustaining ecosystem.

What is perhaps most impressive about aquaponics is how little water is used. The farm’s water bill to maintain the nearly 25 acre facility is just $100 a month.

The farm’s produce is sold at local farmers markets and also goes to Chef Navidi’s restaurant, Oceans and Earth, where it’s all about farm to table.