The urban farm has the capacity to grow 275 000 pounds of fish and 475 000 pounds of organic produce annually.
Using Pentair's water filtration technology, the Urban Organics system can decouple the fish water from the plant water. This allows Urban Organics to raise fish species in cold water with low nutrient levels, alongside plant species in warm water with high nutrient levels. Waste nutrients from the fish water are concentrated and delivered to the plant water. The system has been designed for cold-water fish to take advantage of the colder climate in Minnesota, and therefore operate more energy efficiently.
The two companies started working together when Urban Organics opened its first aquaponics farm in St Paul in 2014.
“The world’s population is growing, and with it, the demand for fish protein is quickly surpassing sustainable natural fish production. Pentair’s aquaculture and aquaponics solutions are expanding farming techniques, including in urban areas, and supporting greater access to protein worldwide,” said Karl Frykman, president of Pentair Water. “We joined forces with Urban Organics to help accelerate the development of large-scale modern aquaponics as we believe it can provide a real commercial option to help solve this growing food dilemma.”
“Our collaboration with Pentair has helped us achieve our vision of creating a new model for urban agriculture that ensures access to healthy foods, while using less than two percent of the water consumed by traditional agriculture,” said David Haider, co-founder of Urban Organics.
Fish and produce production is already underway, and the farm is expected to be at full capacity in early 2018. Fully certified by the USDA as an organic produce farm, Urban Organics is growing a variety of fresh greens, including green and red kale, arugula, bok choy, green and red romaine, Swiss chard, and green and red leaf lettuce, alongside sustainably-raised Atlantic salmon and arctic char.