Water |

December 4, 2015

Overcoming Stress: Are You Having a Breakdown or a Breakthrough?

You’ve been there before. It happens to all of us. You can feel yourself getting so close to a goal that you’ve been trying to achieve for the longest time and you are handed a setback, typically it’s a major one … one that shakes you deep down to your core.

Maybe it’s something that makes you wonder if your goal is even worth pursuing anymore.

Let us share Brianna’s story. It went something like this…

Brianna’s goal was to run her own business. She had dreams of getting to the point where she had her hands in a few different businesses. But that starts with getting one up and running.

About half a year ago Brianna was able to start her first business. After the devastating blow of having recently been let go from her previous job, the timing was right.

As Brianna was searching around for her first client one happened to fall into her lap. She felt excited! Brianna’s client ended up being a fantastic one with a bunch of different projects to keep her busy.

She was off and running, until …

After four months of working with her first client, everything was going great. Her client got to the point where she had enough work to keep Brianna busy full-time. On top of that, there were hardly any hiccups. It was smooth sailing, and she felt great!

One day Brianna’s client went over some work that she submitted, as was normal for them on a weekly basis. For the first time in the four months of working together, Brianna’s client was not satisfied and criticized her work.

The You-Know-What Hit the Fan

This had the potential to be Brianna’s big setback — because she took everything personally. She was feeling massive stress.

Up to this point in her life whenever someone was critical, Brianna crawled into a hole. She didn’t take criticism well. The stress of not pleasing her client was almost overwhelming to Brianna.

Of course, she imagined the worst. She’d probably lose her client, her livelihood, her relationship, her family … everything!

Brianna got stuck and just wanted to run away and hide. She didn’t even want to do anything with her business anymore. How could she? Being told that something you do isn’t good enough can be a hard thing to bear.

A Sudden Realization

This wasn’t the first time she’d felt like a failure. There were many times in her life that she’d felt that she was just ‘not good enough.”

Brianna realized that she would need to break this pattern of her life if she wanted her business to succeed. After a few days of struggling she finally stood up and said to herself, “You know what, I refuse to let this setback ruin me.”

A lot of times the biggest critic in our lives is ourselves. Brianna’s client didn’t want to stop working with her. In fact, he didn’t even realize what he said had been taken this harshly. Harness the Power of Your Emotions -- WATER ... from HowToLiveOnPurpose.com

For the First Time in her Life

Brianna got to a crossroads and for the first time in her life she was able to keep going. She had arrived at a point where she recognized an emotional pattern, and was ready to choose a new outcome.

She overcame the breakdown and made it to the breakthrough. After years of letting stuff bother her to the point that she wanted to call it quits, she realized that she was not willing to give up on herself. She decided to grow.

Scared … or Sacred?

Let’s face it, it takes a lot of courage to move outside your comfort zone. Being willing to face your issues — the deep emotional shackles that have kept you stuck and settling for so much less than you KNOW you truly deserve … and are capable of … sets you free. It is a profound and sacred moment.

So often, a breakdown precedes a breakthrough. But it doesn’t have to be as hard — or scary — as you think! If you’re ready for some emotional freedom, download the “3 ‘Deadly’ Mistakes That Cause Stress, Overwhelm and Burnout.”

Live on Purpose ... Change the World!

Gakina-awiiya (We Are All Related),

Founders, HowToLiveOnPurpose.com
Creators of the Life Purpose Quest - Seven Rites of Passage
Guides and Mentors for Self-Mastery and Personal Transformation

"Teach us love, compassion and honor ... that we may heal the Earth and heal each other." - Ojibwe

Image by Firesam! taken from Flickr

Water |

November 13, 2015

| by The TallTrees

3 Tips to Help You Regain Your Focus

You have family issues, a busying work schedule, and week after week of kids sports practices and games. All of these things can lead to a mind that won’t stop racing.

This can lead to stress. When you have an overwhelming amount of tasks that need accomplishing the human response is typically to procrastinate everything. But, as you know procrastinating is not an effective strategy. All that does is delay, and build, the stress.

Your mind isn’t made to focus on multiple tasks at one time. That’s why when you have a cluttered desk, at work or at home, it seems like your whole life can be thrown out of whack.

Much like that cluttered desk that needs reorganizing, you need to clear your mind of mental clutter to refresh and regain clarity — and get back to firing on all cylinders.

Here are 3 things that you can do to regain your focus and bring some joy back into your life.

Remove Negativity From Your Life

A good place to start when trying to refocus is to start removing negativity from your life.

Your work reflects your state of mind, so take some time to think about some negatives that you can eliminate or minimize from your life so you can get in a positive state of mind.

Here are a few tips for you to start minimizing negativity in your life:

Stop doing things you don’t want to do
Say no more often
Take care of your bills ONE time during the week
Stop complaining
Forget what other people are saying — and don’t participate in talking about others behind their backs

Think About It

When your to-do list keeps on growing, many people may find it counter-intuitive to take some time before you start and reflect on what really needs to be done.

If you’re like most people you think that charging ahead on your tasks will help you complete them quicker. That isn’t always the case. In our experience attempting to do it this way makes a bigger mess.

Start by reviewing your tasks and figuring out how you’re going to spend your time. How much time you have to devote to different tasks, plan out how to move forward, and what ways you work best.

Consider why you’ve been putting things off, what’s been stressing you out, even what time of the day you work the best. Write these reflections down before you start so you can plan out how you’ll prioritize your list. Harness the Power of Your Emotions -- WATER ... from HowToLiveOnPurpose.com

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Be willing to let someone help you. You don’t get what you don’t ask for.

If you feel like you’re up to your eyeballs in things to do, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Reaching out to others doesn’t make you weak. Everyone needs some help from time to time. So find someone that you love and ask for a little help. It will help you accomplish your tasks and grow your relationship with whoever it is you asked.

What tips have you learned over the years that help you out when you lost your focus?

If you need some help regaining your focus download our book “3 Deadly Mistakes” to help you manage your stress, overwhelm and burnout.

Live on Purpose ... Change the World!

Gakina-awiiya (We Are All Related),

Founders, HowToLiveOnPurpose.com
Creators of the Life Purpose Quest - Seven Rites of Passage
Guides and Mentors for Self-Mastery and Personal Transformation

"Teach us love, compassion and honor ... that we may heal the Earth and heal each other." - Ojibwe

Water |

November 2, 2015

| by The TallTrees

Native American Water Blessing: Sing for the Water

In traditional Native American culture, we acknowledge the sentient nature of water. Water is sacred. Water is life.

Here is a beautiful video with The Water Song, written and performed by Chenoa Egawa (Lummi, S’klallam) and Alex Turtle (Dine`, Southern Cheyennne). This beautiful video was produced by Swan Clan Productions.

We will be holding a special event to bless the water. Please join us as we Honor the Sacred Waters.

Even if you can’t join us, we ask that you remember the water, offer your appreciation and gratitude to it. We pray for the healing of the sacred waters here on our Mother Earth.

This is a free event, open to the public. Everyone is welcome. Please share by using the social icons at the top of this page. Chi miigwech (thank you!)

Live on Purpose ... Change the World!

Gakina-awiiya (We Are All Related),

Founders, HowToLiveOnPurpose.com
Creators of the Life Purpose Quest - Seven Rites of Passage
Guides and Mentors for Self-Mastery and Personal Transformation

"Teach us love, compassion and honor ... that we may heal the Earth and heal each other." - Ojibwe

Natural News |

May 16, 2013

| by Chris

Hydroponics: How to Save Water

How to save water is a growing challenge. There are water shortages world wide. Hydroponics is one way to save up to 85% of the water it takes to grow our food. I have met some Great people who are sharing many great ways to save water. They are working to educate and advocate for us all. Go to their website and donate if you like to drink clean water. Who knows whose life you may be saving?

Saving water should never become a public concern only in times of drought when water is undeniably scarce. The world water supply is finite. Every drop of water wasted is a drop less in a wild and scenic river, a drop less of a needed salmon run. Every drop of water that circles a drain unnecessarily wastes energy through the manufacturing of chemicals in the cycle of sewage treatment.
The world water supply is dwindling, and yet it is only water supply we will ever have. The water we use in our kitchens does not indicate an endless supply of safe, clean water. This water will be treated, and eventually will be returned to us, but in a chemically altered state from the previous time we used it.The following are some water facts that you may not know.

Here is a Water Footprint Infographic.

Their website: Savethewater.org states their mission as follows: The mission of Save the Water™ is to conduct water research to identify toxic chemicals harmful to humans, animals, and the environment. Save the Water™ is committed to finding methods to eliminate the toxins and improve the quality of drinking water.

We respect the right of every individual to have access to safe and clean drinking water.

Save the Water™ is committed to the education of present and future generations on water sustainability issues in order to insure the protection and conservation of water. Without clean drinking water, no species plant, animal or human can be saved. We must insure that the water is not contaminated to the point where we can no longer drink it.

With proper funding Save the Water™ will provide the extensive educational instruction and research necessary. Your support and generosity will help us fulfill our mission.

How to Save Water in Agriculture

Hydroponics technology is a growing and becoming more and more popular. With limited resources, Aquaponics is also growing rapidly in technology and efficiency. There are groups and businesses like Earthwizefoods.com who are helping others grow their own food in remote areas.

Another company, Fodder Tech, is still emerging as a technology that will revolutionize the cattle industry. Imagine lowering the amount of water used to feed the cattle for the meat industry by more than 50%! The production of the Fodder that they produce uses hydroponics technology. A wonderful way to save up to 85% of the water to grow most of the cattle feed. That is not the only place that hydroponics is growing.

Urban Hydroponics is another answer in “How to save water” questions

There are hydroponic vegetable and herb gardens all throughout the world. Shipping containers can be turned into hydroponic growing stations! Very efficient especially when using Solar power to run the lights and the water pumps.

How to save water is an ever growing concern. Pesticides, pollution, waste, drought take a toll on the water. Now governments are taking water rights away from its own citizens. How can this be? We are allowing it to happen.

It is time for us to all be aware of our own water usage. Do we really require a chemically maintained green yard? How many children, animals and adults get sick each year because of the dangerous chemicals sprayed or applied to “Their Lawn”? Too many in my opinion.

Lawns do look nice, but they cannot feed your family. Hydroponics and home gardens do feed the family. And since we are looking for ways to save the water, Hydroponics is one of the best answers.

There is a beginners course about Aquaponics by my friend Jonathan White from Australia. They have had very intense droughts there for a while. I highly recommend that if you are interested in Aquaponics, that you check it out.

Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams

Chris Downs, the Caretaker

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

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Founders, Life Purpose |

April 23, 2013

| by Terri Lynn TallTree

The Day After…Earth Day?

For Native peoples, every day is Earth Day. According to our elders, we are here to help one another and take care of the Earth.

They say, “The Earth is our Mother…care for her.”

The teachings go like this…

Since the beginning of time, everything on the Earth has upheld it’s responsibility, given to it by the Creator…except for the two-leggeds (human beings). They have forgotten their place. We are here to help one another and take care of the Earth.

There are millions of species living here on this beautiful planet, yet only ONE is responsible for environmental polution…people.

Last week my dear friend Gina Gaudio-Graves asked me, “When you speak about Mother Earth, do you talk of other things besides healing?” I replied, “As Native Americans we have a deep and abiding love for her, and we simply cannot speak about the Earth without focusing on our responsibility to her healing. The need is imminent…”

I couldn’t help but be moved to tears as we talked about this…because it’s not a trend or a special once a year focus, but a lifestyle, a commitment to unity and peace, a love for the land and for all living beings who inhabit and share this place. For each of us, it is our home.

I was taught that, as a woman, it is my responsibility to pray for the water every day, to show and express our sincere appreciation and love for it. Water is the great healer, and without it our life would not be sustainable. There is a conscious awareness in water — it is a living entity and it responds to your thoughts and emotions.

Imagine what would happen if, every morning upon arising every woman on the planet stopped for a moment to express appreciation and gratitude for the water…

You have a personal relationship, and responsibility, with the Earth and all living beings. All men, women and children do – as do all other living beings. When you awaken fully into conscious awareness, you begin to experience the magic and wonder of living on purpose.

You can become fully aware of your unique and intimate connection with Earth – Wind – Fire – Water. Not only are they a part of you, they each have awareness and are to be respected and acknowledged. This is one aspect of healing Mother Earth.

If you’d like to explore and deepen your personal relationship with the Four Elements, the “Four Brothers” video shows you how to connect on a deeper level.

Make every day Earth Day. As our wise ones have said, “We do not own the Earth, we are borrowing from our children.”

Live on Purpose…Change the World!

Gakina-awiiya (We Are All Related),

Terri Lynn TallTree
Guide and Mentor to Self-Mastery and Personal Transformation

CoFounder, http://howtoliveonpurpose.com/about/about-the-founders-the-talltrees/

“Teach us love, compassion and honor…that we may heal the Earth and heal each other.” – Ojibwe

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The Day After…Earth Day?

Natural News |

March 7, 2013

| by Chris

Hydroponics, The Answer to Thriving During Drought?

Hydroponics, is it the answer to thriving during drought? Many farmers say yes. Here in Colorado, as well as Texas and other states we have gone through a long drought. I had the opportunity to speak with Johnathon Wood from Majestic Hydrogardening this last weekend.

Meet Johnathon Wood

Johnathon has been involved with hydroponics since the 1970′s. He started his first garden when he was just 8 years old and has passion for growing food. He also enjoys growing other plants as well. He has seen the need for change in the United States. More people are growing their own food. Concerns about GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) is becoming a major concern. GMO foods put our health as risk. Even Mother Earth News has started sharing information on hydroponics.

Johnathan started with Hydroponics when the first Space Station was experimenting with growing food in space. NASA chose hydroponics as the best solution. So what better place to start than following the NEW space age technology?

Johnathon found that the US Government was doing a study on growing hemp using hydroponics. The study contained information on the products and health benefits of hemp. He shared with me that durability is the reason Levi jeans were so popular with farmers. By adding hemp fibers, the clothing lasted a lot longer. Hemp is refined into many products:

Hemp oil
Food
Fiber
Seeds
Clothing
Textiles
Resin
Wax
Rope
Pulp
Fuel

Hemp is still used today, and Virginia is looking to legalize it once again for the fibers and food value.

Government Experimentation

The US Government completed a study on how to make the other types of cannabis (what most people call marijuana) more potent. They also studied its health effects. That type of marijuana is now legal in Colorado and Washington States.

Johnathan’s Hydroponics Passion

Jonathan has a passion to get people growing! Lettuce, Tomatoes, spinach or anything that will help them become self-sufficient. Health comes from healthy nutrition, he shared. It is easy to get caught up in his passion for growing food and herbs using hydroponics when you talk to him. Johnathon is going to start to teaching hydroponics soon. His will also be teaching Botany and other tips and tricks needed to be successful growing food and plants indoors and out.

Water Conservation at its best

Hydroponics is water conservation at its best. As I shared before, water has become a very sacred commodity. Cities, states and the federal government is doing whatever it can to control our water. Rain water, wetlands, even small lakes are being claimed by different governmental agencies. In some states it is illegal to catch rain water for your own use. Even if it falls onto your own property.

Johnathon Wood has a website: http://www.Majestichydrogardening.com is where you can see his videos and tips and tricks. He also has products that you can purchase to make your hydroponic food crops flourish and remain clean and safe for consumption.

We will be releasing videos of our conversation. These videos will tell when his classes are available. In addition Johnathon will be writing more books and reports as well. These will be available soon to feed your passion and desire to grow indoors as well as outdoors. Johnathon is an expert in all aspects of growing and sustainability.

We will be sharing more information with you in the coming Growing Newsletter. We will be sharing the videos of Johnathon in our newsletter members area.

P.S. Our next newsletter will be sharing information about Fodder Tech. This is a high-tech hydroponic growing company that is revolutionizing the feed for farmers and rancher who raise animals for sale. Lower cost, Lower workload and happier animals who produce more.

Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams

Chris Downs, the Caretaker

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

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Natural News |

December 10, 2012

| by Chris

Water Filtration Systems: Taste and Odor Removal

You move into a brand-new house. Go to the faucet and turn on the water. The water looks dirty and smells like a bottle of chlorine filled with dirt. What do you do?

City water has to meet certain standards. As the water sits in the lines, it can grow bacteria. That is where a lot of the color and taste and odor come from. You call your local municipality that provides water to you and you asked them if the water safe. Of course they tell you it meets the safe drinking water act requirements.

What is that mean to you? It means that the water quality at your house must have chlorine in it. It must also have less than a certain amount of bacteria in it to be considered safe which is 500 units of contaminants per milliliter. A milliliter is equal to 1/1000 of a liter. So that is not a very large amount of contaminants in the water.

So how can it smell and taste so bad?
Answer: The chemicals and water treatment process combined with the pipes that deliver it to your house.

For you the best choice to create better water for your house is to install to whole house filters in series.

First filter cartridge will be a 5 µ filter.
The second filter cartridge will be a carbon filter.

This will remove the sediment and taste and odor.

For you the best filter cartridge will be a 20 inch Big Blue filter cartridge. You want a high flow whole house filter double 20” x 5”cartridges. It comes with two housings and will remove hundreds of contaminants from your water. The first filter will be a solid carbon cartridge for removing volatile compounds like insecticides, pesticides and solvents. The second filter cartridge you want to have a stack cartridge that has a 1 µ pad then ceramic balls, granular activated carbon or GAC then another one micron pad. And that’s all you’ll need with the exception of replacement cartridges.

Want to make sure that sure house water pressure is between 40 and 80 PSI. Your filter cartridges depending on quality of water will be about 160,000 gallons. That is if you use 6 to 10 gallons per minute. If you have experience doing plumbing you can do this yourself. If you have threaded fittings and access to shutting the water off to your house it will be simple.

If you are unsure hire a plumber. When you contact the plumber ask for a discount if you purchase the filter system from them.

At the same time ask for a filter monitoring system. It should be inexpensive and have a warning light that mounts to your refrigerator with the magnet. This is a simple easy to operate and change filters in a few minutes.

Keep extra filters on hand, ensure your plumber teaches you how to maintain it and enjoy your clean great tasting water.

Healthy water helps provide for a healthy life. The cleaner your food and water that you eat and drink the healthier you will be. Any questions leave a comment at the end of this report. Follow our website and our blog so that you can learn more about your healthy life.

Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams

Chris Downs, the Caretaker

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

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Natural News |

August 23, 2012

| by Chris

What is the Life Cycle of Aquaponics?

What is the Life Cycle of Aquaponics? That is a great question.

There is a basic formula for the life cycle of aquaponics.

You have a fish tank, can be small or large.
You need the correct amount of fish
You will need a grow bed for your plants
A water pump
An oxygenator for the water
A complete understanding of the nitrogen cycle
Knowledge on how to set up the tanks, tubes, pump and a heater for temperature control for your fish. If you are in a warm or hot climate, you may need to keep the fish tank cool.
A proper fish to tank and vegetation ratio

So the fish produce ammonia in their tank as they poop in the water. The ammonia is then converted to nitrates by bacteria. The plants use the nitrates as food to grow and clean the water. The water then goes back to the fish tank clean and healthy for the fish!

A complete Aquaponics Life Cycle for your sustainable living experience.

So What are the steps that you need to accomplish?

Set up your fish tank system. Set up the Tank, the pump and tubing including the grow bed tank. The gravel or clay are in the grow bed with the return water tubing. Fill the tank with non-chlorinated water (captured rain water is great!)
Test the pH. The pH should be between 6.4 and 7.0. some people fret to get the pH exactly to 6.8, but this is real life, and I am sure you want to be realistic and not a perfectionist. As long as the pH supports healthy edible plants and the fish you are growing, you are fine.
Place Your fish in the tank. Once your tank system is clean and everything is correct pH wise and with the proper temperature for your fish, put in the fish! Remember, the Fish are your guests and your pets, or food, so make them comfortable so that they grow in a healthy environment.
Turning Ammonia into Nitrites and Nitrates. Nitrification is the conversion of ammonia to nitrate through biological oxidation. It is an aerobic process that involves several stages and numerous species of microorganisms. I am not going go into that now, but you can go to the link Nitrification to learn more. As the fish are fed, their waste becomes ammonia in the tank. The converted ammonia (now nitrates) flow to the grow beds, where it flourishes in either the gravel or clay bed.
Keep the water chemically balanced. Test your tank water and keep the overall pH around 6.8 or so, and keep the ammonia as low as possible. This is a must to keep the fish and the vegetation healthy and growing.
Send the water from the grow bed (after being used by the vegetation back to the fish tank. In this step, the water that has been cleaned by the vegetation gets drained back to the fish tank. The plants consumed the nitrogen and sends clean water back to the fish! Do not forget that the plants roots will need to drain periodically so that they can get the oxygen they need. You can use a flood valve to automate this setup.

CONCLUSION

Now comes a new mindset and some new skills. As the system is running, gain the habit of checking ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH levels frequently. You can purchase expensive equipment that will do it for you and send you an alarm, or you can just check it yourself.

Do not overfeed the fish, as it is the only external element required in the process, if you overfeed the fish it can increase the ammonia created in the tank.

Pay attention to the smell of the water. It should have a fresh scent, not a rotting or nasty odor. With the nitrogen cycle started properly, both fish and plant life will thrive in your aquaponics system.

That is the basic Aquaponics Life Cycle. The fish eat and poop, the bacteria change ammonia to nitrates and the plants eat the nitrates. The clean water goes back to the fish tank! All one happy cycle and you benefit!

The Native Americans taught about the cycle of life for centuries before we even thought about it. It is the balance of life that ensures your life’s journey is Joyful and Healthy. The 4 Brothers is a great place to start your understanding.

Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams

Chris Downs, the Caretaker

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

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Natural News |

August 13, 2012

| by Chris

Researching to Add Commercial Aquaponics Business to Your Farm?

Are you researching to add commercial aquaponics business to your farm? There is a lot of information to be discovered that eventually even brings about more questions. Who do you talk to? Where do you go without spending days, weeks months or years deciding if this is the answer for you?

I was recently in Birmingham Alabama and I had the opportunity to go to a couple of restaurants that use farmed fish and seafood for their menus. They had signs in their establishments that stated that upon request that they would furnish you the information as to how their fish was farmed. Again, this brings up the question of USDA Organic Certification, or do you choose Certified Naturally grown? There is a newer accreditation that I had not heard of before: Herban farms is a GAP farm which volunteers to be monitored by the USDA since 2011. You can go to this link below and learn more about it:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateN&page=GAPGHPAuditVerificationProgram

It seems that there is more and more certification available to the point you can be spending a ton of time and money just to get the most from your crop. But is it worth it? The answer is in your customer base.

What I discovered while at the different restaurants is that they all want to serve the best quality of food for the best price to their customers. Here in the United States, with the droughts happening over a large percentage of our nation, water is a very important factor. That is where I believe the answer for your farm or commercial smaller operation is in what can you do to control costs and conserve water.

In Oregon, the local governments are now fining and jailing farmers and landowners for collecting rain water. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/329723 is an article that I read about this. There are quite a few more of these articles, so if you have to collect rain water and build ponds to build your aquaponics system, now is the time to discover what your local government regulations are for collecting rain water and using it for your farm or garden.

During your research, if you can speak to others in your area and see what kind of fish that they would like to purchase, do not forget to go to your local pet stores or landscaping companies that build koi ponds as well as stock ponds with other fish so that you can sell locally. This is a big deal for local areas, as the fish will be acclimated to the local environment.

The other place to get help is from forums. As I shared in other articles, there are some very knowledgeable and helpful farmers and aquaponics business men and women who are more than willing to tell you their experiences. Heck, if you are one of those already professionally growing aquaponically your story would be great to hear and post on this site if you would like to share!

Remember, what we do and who we are. We are the people that remember that one way or another, we are all related. We have the mindset to make a difference in the world and in the food industry and we also want to build our passion. That passion can look like hard work or in the form of a successful business, but if it is your passion, stay connected.

I am looking forward to hearing your stories and sharing the ones I encounter as I continue to speak to others with the same passion for farming and aquaponics. It just makes sense to me to build a complete ecosystem that we can control and grow into a local healthy food source. Today is a Great Day to begin acting on your Passion and taking the first step on your new journey.

Click here now to discover the secrets of USDA Organic Certification.

Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams

Chris Downs, the Caretaker

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

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Natural News |

July 28, 2012

| by Chris

Is Tilapia Aquaculture a Viable Business?

Is Tilapia Aquaculture a viable Business? As far as raising fish to sell, Tilapia was the fifth most important fish to fish farming. There was 1,505,804 metric tons of Tilapia fish produced in the year 2000. Why you may ask is that significant?
Tilapias are farmed due to their large size as well as their rapid growth, and because of the taste and texture of their meat. So with rapid growth and a customer base that is worldwide, need I say more? Tilapia is actually group of different species commonly called Tilapia. They are known colloquially as tilapia.

To be bred in captivity though, you might need some help to get started. First,

They are a large fish
Outdoor fish farms need to be located in temperate zones.
It can be expensive to keep the water warm to tropical temperatures depending upon where you are located.
There is a lot of competition
The tanks and equipment to start and run a successful large scale operation can be prohibitive to most farmers.

Unlike other crops that may be grown though, Tilapia Aquaculture is world renowned. China is currently the largest grower, while Egypt is right behind them. But tilapia breed easily in captivity and they adapt easily to a wide variety of water conditions. So depending upon the exact species of Tilapia Aquaculture that you start, you do have choices for the fish that you grow. Choose wisely and you will do well as a fish farm growing tilapia.

One of the biggest expenses to get started could possibly be the learning curve to become successful in Tilapia Aquaculture. It has been around since 1997, but has only recently become better known throughout the world. There are some real good benefits from raising Tilapia though:

They are large fish
They grow quickly
They eat about anything to stay alive and grow.
They are high in protein
They reproduce at a very high rate
They have become well known as a quality fish product

What is the best thing to feed in an tilapia aquaculture environment then? Again, they will eat just about anything. They became known as the Poo Fish after an episode of Dirty Jobs where the tilapia were used to clean up the manure form striped bass. However, they do eat a wide variety of things.

Commercial farms will feed their fish pellets of grain, soybeans and other food products
Wild tilapia eat vegetation, algae
Plankton
Insects
Larvae
Compost (decaying organic matter)
Small fish
And yes, fish poo
Anything that they can get in their mouth that is edible.
They can be vegetarian and like algae
Duck weed which is a good source of protein. The duckweed uses the fish manure for food, and provides food for the fish.

Hopefully you can see from the overall view of tilapia aquaculture why it is a viable business choice.

Is it for you? I do not know, but I do know that if you want to succeed, you need to get some help. The more you know, the fewer challenges that you will encounter. You can start small and see if it something that you would like to pursue.

I have seen fish tanks placed in greenhouses to help keep the temperature in an acceptable range for the plants using the large water mass of a fish tank. Why not use the fish poo to feed your plants? That would be aquaponics, and that is a discussion we will continue in another article.

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Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams

Chris Downs, the Caretaker

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

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