Had the opportunity to sit down and chat with a few people about my project but more importantly about the idea of Aquaponics and its relation is society. I spoke with Michelle Callabro, fellow MFADt Student, and Derek Haviland, Communications & Outreach Director at CAFCA.

Michelle has been working on documenting urban agriculture, in Harlem with her cousin. Her examinations of the users provided me the opportunities to discover what she has found. Her short videos are coming out soon, and I hope to link to them. Michelles connections with the community and her documentary research provided me with the ability to see what has failed in the past working in communities and how I can better position myself within the areas I am trying to help. Quotes to follow.

I had an interesting discussion with Derek about Aquaponics. Derek was in charge of investigating the use of aquaponics systems in urban, low-income communities in Connecticut. He discussed the benefits, to a community, the potential job creation and increased access to fresh vegetables. Derek also provided great insight into the limitations of setting up a system as such, telling me that he believes the government(state and federal) will need to get involved to get something like this started. I will follow up with him again as he is proving to have great insights.