Insight into risk in aquatic animal health in aquaponics

It has been more than 45 years since the science fiction film Soylent Green (1973) first appeared in cinemas. The movie was prescient for its time and predicted many of our current environmental problems, including dying oceans, the greenhouse effect, overpopulation, and loss of biodiversity. Even though we hope that humans will not serve as a future nutrient source, the scenarios laid out in the movie are not that far from being realised. As researchers and citizens, we realise our duty of care to the environment and the rest of our world’s ever-growing population. We are concerned that if we stand back and ignore the current trends in exploitation of resources and methods of production that our paradise of a planet will be doomed or at least far diminished, such that living on the sterile surfaces of the Moon or Mars will seem like a pleasant alternative. Generations to come will and should hold us individually and collectively responsible for the mess that we leave. The numerous authors of this book are in a lucky as well as in an unfortunate position, in that we can either help to solve problems or be held responsible by future generations for being part of the problem. When we started the COST Action FA1305 ‘The EU Aquaponics Hub – Realising Sustainable Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU’, aquaponics was a niche technology that, at an industrial scale, could not compete with stand-alone hydroponics and aquaculture technologies. However, aquaponics technology in the past decade has taken great leaps forward in efficiency and hence economic viability through a wide range of technological advances. As our ability to understand the environmental costs of industrial farming increases, we are more capable of developing technologies to ensure that farming is more productive and less damaging to the environment. This positive outcome should be bolstered by the very encouraging signs that although young people are statistically not interested in being the farmers of the future, they do want to be future farmers if technology is involved and they can adapt these technologies to live closer to urban environments and have a better quality of life than in the rural past. Kids of all ages are fascinated by technology, and it is no wonder as technology solves many problems. At the same time though, kids (perhaps less so with teenagers) are also environmentally conscious and understand that the future of our planet lies in the melding of nature and technology. Technology allows us to be more productive, and although we have no certainty that we can and will effectively solve climate change, we still have hope that there will be a future where people will be healthy and fed with nutritious food.We, the authors of this book, realise that we are but small fry in a world of much bigger fish (sometimes sharks), but we are more than hopeful, indeed confident, that aquaponics has a role to play in the world’s future food production.