no, it is not an organic approach... but inorganic approach.

It is an intensification system, including the crop production, which is trying to eliminate the soil as a factor for support, nutrition and balance for the relations between plants and soil, between plants and cosmos. There are aquatic plants, that grow very well without soil, but which were created by God and nature especially for the water-plant system. Aquaponics techniques are evolved systems of Hydroponics crops. In my opinion, are unnaturale systems. Plants are forced to grow in environments that are not commonly used. The taste of vegetal products obtained from these systems is lower than those of the plants raised on soil.

A mixture of water, agricultural vegetation, fish, but also plastic hose and other plastic materials, makes water not to be „vital” anymore, in consequence even the water from plants and fish is tained (disorderly clusters) and the nutrition value of the obtained products is lower.

It’a a personal opinion. I would like to be wrong about that. I think, however, that we still have enough soil on which to produce food. It is only necessary to take care of him.

For the colleagues from Research Gate team, my recently published papers, in English, are available on my website, www.bercamihai.ro, and the password is researchgate.

I like Berca Mihai's point that most aquaculture projects would be more intensive is quite important. There is a lot of potential for the densities of nutrients used in intensive systems to drift down unintended paths that can lead to plant or animal disease or deficiencies. I suspect that refining system design and inputs could perhaps improve quality of foods grown this way. The benefits of mitigating the drawbacks of these methods could have dramatic impact on the future of human health as arable land is lost. High intensity methods might be the best way to avoid large scale human dislocation.

Aquaponics systems can be done in an ecological way. Although more plastic than farming in the soil, but once you consider the use of tractors, irrigation and addition of fertilizers even in organic systems aquaponics is a great resource. Aquaponics recirculates water in the system claiming a 90% reduction in water use. When utilized in areas with drought conditions or contaminated soils these systems make sense. As well as their use in brown field locations and use in for urban agriculture. They are can be organic systems with the exception of the use of iron additions. These systems mimic the role of wetlands and do produce amazing vegetables, herbs and fruits. From what I have seen they produce equivalent produce if not superior in some cases. When a system is managed properly the production is greater in Aquaponics systems than in traditional agriculture.