aquaponics

noun

1. (uncountable)A sustainable food production system that combines traditional aquaculture with hydroponics, with effluent from the water in which fish are reared being used as nutrition for plants.

   “The tomato may in fact have absorbed a flavor from the soil in which it was grown, one granted neither by the sand of Florida's winter tomatoes exported North, nor by hothouse aquaponics.”

   “The warm water in which [Donnie] Tenney's tilapia swim and grow is pumped from the fish tanks to beds nurturing basil, rosemary, and cucumber, then drained, filtered, and recirculated to the tilapia. The hybrid aquaculture-hydroponics system, dubbed aquaponics, uses pumps, aerators, greenhouse lights, and fans all powered by natural gas from an abandoned gas well.”

   “Pumps send the dirty fish water up into beds of watercress, which filter pollutants and trickle the cleaner water back down to the fish – a symbiotic system called aquaponics.”