Slideshow SLIDESHOW: Behind the Scenes at Aqua Vita Farms,
Growing Aquaponic Fish and Produce in Sherrill, NY
[Photographs: Max Falkowitz]  You probably already know about
aquaculture: the domestication of fish for food in enclosed
spaces. And you may have had hydroponic produce: plants like
lettuce grown in water instead of soil under controlled
conditions. But how about aquaponics?  Put simply, aquaponic
agriculture combines fish-based aquaculture with plant-based
hydroponics in a closed system, where the waste products of one
process become food for the other, all contained in a climate-
controlled environment that allows farmers to adjust nearly
every environmental variable that they want.  Aquaponics isn't
just a way to grow fish and produce independent of climate. It's
an efficient, low-waste agricultural system, and as chief farmer
Mark Doherty of Aqua Vita Farms (one of the few wholesale
aquaponics farms in the U.S.) puts it, it could be part of our
efforts to feed a rapidly growing population with in