# 1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 1 pump,10000 fish, 500 yards of compost



## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

Let's get started this is the future of farming! :2thumb:






More information! Anybody that wants to fund this let me know!

http://wakeup-world.com/2011/07/14/how-1-million-pounds-of-organic-food-can-be-produced-on-3-acres/


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## PamsPride (Dec 21, 2010)

That looks labor intensive and like it takes more than just a couple of people to make that happen. It looks like that place takes a lot of free labor...I mean volunteers.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

It never works out like they say ... IMO 

I know because I have been pulled in before. They always post the good stuff never the bad. (I'll pass)


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

*Andi said:


> It never works out like they say ... IMO
> 
> I know because I have been pulled in before. They always post the good stuff never the bad. (I'll pass)


Agreed that it never works out like they say, BUT, I'm sure some components could be adapted/used on a smaller scale that would be of some benefit for the average person.

I'll let someone else put it to the test though!:laugh:


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

My son is in the process of testing on a smaller scale. I will update on success and/or failure.


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## catsraven (Jan 25, 2010)

That is if you can eat fish, I cant. Leafy greens are fine but what about potatoes, corn, carrots and other vegies that need to be grown another way? 
Ill pass too.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

RevWC said:


> My son is in the process of testing on a smaller scale. I will update on success and/or failure.


Hope to hear all about it!


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## bahramthered (Mar 10, 2012)

This has been a long running project and has gotten national attention. Supposedly they're hitting those numbers, consistently.

I don't remember the numbers exactly since it's been a while, but supposedly the set up each green house for less than a 100K, but they did get a lot of it donated. The green houses where literally built on tennis courts. 

The tech works and they teach it. They're getting awards and medals for it.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Anyone remember that guy who was trying something similar with cattle and hydroponics?

I didn't/dont think his way would work either but would have welcomed being proven wrong.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Davarm, that was Von Helman, I am still in touch with him via email updates ... his project is still going well as of my last email received from him.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

Two years ago I bought 6 Wal-mart Goldfish at 26 cents each for the 1,000 gallon fountain pond in the front yard.

Today I still have 2 of them. Buggers are about 4" long. That's it for my fish farming project.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

TheLazyL said:


> Two years ago I bought 6 Wal-mart Goldfish at 26 cents each for the 1,000 gallon fountain pond in the front yard. Today I still have 2 of them.


^They are GREAT for skeeter larvae control!!!

I like the idea of aquaponics, but get so tired of people trying to make it look like it is easy.

Would love to hear more updates from Von Helman.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

NaeKid said:


> Davarm, that was Von Helman, I am still in touch with him via email updates ... his project is still going well as of my last email received from him.


Some gave him a real hard time about what he was trying but I respect the fact that he was/is working it for himself. Its people like that that go out on a limb and put forth the effort that reap the greater rewards if/when they are successful.

Hope he checks back in and updates us on his progress.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Davarm said:


> Some gave him a real hard time about what he was trying but I respect the fact that he was/is working it for himself. Its people like that that go out on a limb and put forth the effort that reap the greater rewards if/when they are successful.
> 
> Hope he checks back in and updates us on his progress.


You guys are hinting at his projects and I'm interested in reading about what we was building, so can you recall any threads in which he laid out his plans and efforts. The search function doesn't provide any quick hits and I'd basically have to go his entire posting history in order to hit pay dirt.


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## d_saum (Jan 17, 2012)

Bobbb said:


> You guys are hinting at his projects and I'm interested in reading about what we was building, so can you recall any threads in which he laid out his plans and efforts. The search function doesn't provide any quick hits and I'd basically have to go his entire posting history in order to hit pay dirt.


He was trying to build a compound that had a ridiculous amount of livestock on it, and grow everything he needed.. I gave him props for trying it.. but it sounded absolutely off the wall. I'll try to find the thread for ya.

Edit: I searched for that thread, but it seems to be gone! I did manage to find him on another forum asking the same basic questions. You can see that *HERE* if you are interested.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

d_saum said:


> He was trying to build a compound that had a ridiculous amount of livestock on it, and grow everything he needed.. I gave him props for trying it.. but it sounded absolutely off the wall.


I want to say he had like 100 chickens and 20 cows on *one* acre, and feeding them all with produce from a large vertical greenhouse with high yielding plants. The manure was gathered and fed the plants. Please correct me if I am remembering incorrectly.

In a perfect world I suppose it would work... but one bad bacterial or viral outbreak that targeted ANY of the genus/species (including _**** sapiens_) and the gears would all start to grind.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Von has a few thousand acres at his place with enough space to do anything he wanted in the "normal" sense of the word. 


His experiment was to try to take thousands of acres of production and see what would happen if he put it all together in a very small package using some amazing eco-models - stuff that many of us have described as the "perfect circle" of harvesting meat ... 

The center of his plans revolved around a tower-green-house for growing the plants and feeding the sprouts and other grown foods to the different animals in the compound. From there, the fish, sheep, chickens, etc would have their own "circle-of-life" ... a large pond and a very deep well would supply all the water needs.


If the experiment would fail, none of the animals would be allowed to suffer as they could all be put back into the normal farming operations.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Bobbb said:


> You guys are hinting at his projects and I'm interested in reading about what we was building, so can you recall any threads in which he laid out his plans and efforts. The search function doesn't provide any quick hits and I'd basically have to go his entire posting history in order to hit pay dirt.


I think we are all pretty familiar with how you gather facts and crunch numbers, follow d_saum's link and tell us what you think.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

I followed the link. He sure has an interesting project. I believe that this general rule of how the world works applies here - you can intensify any process so long as you commit time, money and infrastructure to the process. What cows will do naturally over X acres you can concentrate into 500 square feet if you're willing to build a heated greenhouse, grow vertically, alter the CO2 mix, install 24 hour flicker lights, and so on plus commit your time to managing the process. You can operate on the limit that technology and capital permit or you can pull back from that limit, use more space and less tech/money/time, and still keep that cow alive. If you pull back so far then you're back at using a lot of land and no tech/money/time.

Linc brings up an excellent point though - this effort exposes a weak underbelly which is infection becomes a threat in a concentrated system. Multiple greenhouses creates redundancy so long as the infection can't be transmitted between the two.

Land would have to be pretty expensive in order for this method to gain traction in society. It's kind of like the labor market. Employers will hire illegal infiltrators because it's cheaper to do so than it is to automate your production process to reduce labor but the auto industry faced with high labor costs went fully on board with robotic welders and painters and such in order to reduce the cost of expensive labor inputs.

As an experiment, to do it just to see if you can do it, I think Van Helman is on an interesting road. I hope he keeps us updated and doesn't invest his ego in any reports, by which I mean I hope he doesn't slant things so that he comes out looking right even if he did encounter difficulties. I don't want to judge him and I'm not interested in, and I'm sure that others aren't as well, in saying "we were right." I'd love to read about where things worked for him and where they didn't. I hope he comes back and updates us on his project.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

From memory.....
One of his biggest mistakes was mentioning that any excess manure drainage can just run off into a ditch and run out onto federal land. That got a whole bunch of folks on here hot under the collar. Not only is that irresponsible, but a federal offense. He countered by saying he wasn't in the USA, but the damage to his reputation was already done at that point. I never did get his location, but I am guessing South America somewhere.

I commend him for his willingness to innovate... he just needed to be more careful of what he was saying.


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## Jimthewagontraveler (Feb 8, 2012)

Hey I want more of this!
If he did let manure water runoff it means he had excess?
Excellent !!
Now lets think methane?


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## d_saum (Jan 17, 2012)

LincTex said:


> I want to say he had like 100 chickens and 20 cows on *one* acre, and feeding them all with produce from a large vertical greenhouse with high yielding plants. The manure was gathered and fed the plants. Please correct me if I am remembering incorrectly.
> 
> In a perfect world I suppose it would work... but one bad bacterial or viral outbreak that targeted ANY of the genus/species (including _**** sapiens_) and the gears would all start to grind.


I was thinking it was 3 acres... but my remembery stinks.. at least my english be gooder than my thinker-majiggy. Anywho.. the rest sounds right. And yes.. waste was one of his big issues that he seemed to not really want to address. Does anyone know what happened to that thread?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

d_saum said:


> Does anyone know what happened to that thread?


I think NaeKid deleted it to protect Von HelMan.

I think things have cooled off enough... it would be nice to hear how his experiments are actually doing.

*WITH* all the info - - - the good, the bad and the ugly!


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## d_saum (Jan 17, 2012)

LincTex said:


> I think NaeKid deleted it to protect Von HelMan.
> 
> I think things have cooled off enough... it would be nice to hear how his experiments are actually doing.
> 
> *WITH* all the info - - - the good, the bad and the ugly!


I concur. :beercheer:


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