Aquaponics in KY and Cedar in SD: A Natural Recipe for Entrepreneurship

Aquaponics plants

Can entrepreneurship still be natural resource based today? If you ask Eddie Patton, the Project Coordinator of the New Century Aquaponics Demonstration and Entrepreneur Training project in Kentucky’s Big Sandy Area Development District (ADD), an Economic Development Administration funded district, the answer is “yes.” Patton learned about aquaponics at an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) meeting in spring 1999. This month, construction of a Big Sandy aquaponics facility will begin, after a year and a half of planning. Betsie Caroll of Big Sandy ADD, a member of the Project’s Steering Committee, and Clark Allison of Big Sandy Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) Council both remarked, “It was a great team effort and took lots of intergovernmental cooperation to come this far.”

Aquaponics offers alternative agriculture enterprises, uses little land and produces little pollution. It systematically grows plants and fish in one greenhouse. Wastewater effluent from fish is sprayed on plant roots in a “soilless” medium. The closed recycling circuit speeds up plant growth by 30 to 40 percent and enables the production of fresh produce and fish all year round.

Patton realized the entrepreneurial possibilities and used an aquaponics facility in Mountain City, Tennessee as a model. The Big Sandy facility will be located at a high school, an excellent location for entrepreneurial training. The Education Committee has worked with Morehead University and vocational technical schools to develop an entrepreneurial training schedule.

The 35 member Steering Committee, Big Sandy’s State Senator, and the Big Sandy RC&D obtained a $75,000 grant from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s 1999 Value-Added Program. The grant will cover construction costs. The committee is currently pursuing operations funding from sources like ARC. Patton explained, “The facility’s six 800 gallon tanks and approximately 36 grow beds are expected to provide a location for up to five business start-ups and offer thousands of hours of training.”

In Burke, South Dakota, an entrepreneurship aimed at converting invasive cedar trees into profits, has also proven that entrepreneurships can be based on natural resources. Leroy Smith, in 1998, began researching ways of converting cedar into a value-added product, ultimately to protect his grazing lands.

South Dakota Cedar Tour

Smith, working with Randall RC&D Coordinator Les Labahn, obtained a US Department of Agirculture (USDA) Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant. The SARE grant has enabled Smith to produce cedar mulch. The mulch is now being used by the county highway department for roadside erosion prevention and seeding. A performance and cost evaluation of the mulch is expected next year to determine the product’s success. According to Labahn, using mulch in windy conditions should be more effective than using straw.

Smith’s success is already becoming a natural resources value-added planning model. Recently, after consulting with Randall RC&D about Smith’s entrepreneurship, a Chamberlain, South Dakota project adopted a value-added business plan instead of pursing material production. The Chamberlain project is working with Planning and Development District III to gain access to capital.

A key goal of Smith’s entrepreneurship is to produce items for the local market, while safely using available natural resources. Smith is hoping to expand production to include cedar chips for pet and livestock bedding.

By Kelly Novak, Research Manager

Contact Eddie Patton of Floyd County Fiscal Court at (606) 886-9193 or flcofc@eastky.net; Clark Allison of Big Sandy RC&D at (606) 789-7706, Betsie Carroll of Big Sandy ADD at (606) 886-2374; Les Labahn of Randall RC&D at (605)487-7077 or leslie.labahn@ sd.nrcs.usda.gov; Susan Sebert of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service at (202) 720-2847.

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