Dancing Bass Markets and Microfarms

At Dancing Bass, believe that there should never be a reason for a person to have to go hungry.  Through aquaponics, we pledge to have a positive impact on our communities and help combat hunger with the freshest, purest, best tasting food possible.  


Our Cause

Dancing Bass Markets and Microfarms have the goal of helping communities take back their food. The current economy has driven food prices higher and higher, to the point where 50.1 million Americans live in food insecure households according to Feeding America. While that number is staggering, according to the World Hunger Education Service, nearly 870 million people (or 1 in 8 people in the world) are suffering from chronic undernourishment. While we do not believe we are the sole answer to world hunger, we can definitely have an affect on hunger in our communities.

We have developed several prototypes of aquaponic systems designed for indoor and backyard use. Our backyard systems are currently in their second stage of design. The indoor systems are second generation, and are being tested to eliminate any flaws in the design. We are happy to say that currently our designs are producing a large amount of produce.

We hope to offer our systems at low cost to the consumer while being able to have enough productivity to keep customers fed year round. We are beginning locally, and have started to work with Oklahoma State University's Small Business Development Center and International Trade Center so that we can expand our project to get the highest quality, most productive equipment for the lowest cost to the consumer. In time, we plan to have systems which will allow us to supply restaurants, grocery stores, and any other consumers which wish to have locally grown food.





What is Aquaponics?

Aquaponics is a closed loop system combining aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil). The fish excrete waste in the form of ammonia and solids. The water passes through a natural filter (we use a gravel media bed) and then pumped to the plants. The plants absorb the nutrients, leaving the clean, filtered water to return to the fish. This cycle keeps both the plants fed and the fish happy. The benefits of this system are numerous and we encourage people to learn as much as possible about the technology associated with aquaponics.

Organic certified farms may still use synthetic pesticides and herbicides on their products.  Our systems cannot use any form of synthetic pesticide or herbicide for a very simple reason: the fish will die. Aquaponic systems act as an ecosystem, and adding anything to upset the ecosystem would result in the loss of an entire system.

While the ecosystem sounds like it is delicate and hard to care for, it is incredibly easy. We suggest testing the water once a week to ensure the pH and ammonia levels remain at the proper range, otherwise you simply feed the fish and watch the plants grow! There is no need to weed or fertilize and very little water is lost to evaporation. According to Purdue University, aquaponics can use as little as 2% of the water typically consumed by conventional farming while producing between five to seven times the amount of produce per square foot. Compared to conventional methods of farming, aquaponics is extremely resource efficient.


Where We Are Now

We currently have two variations on an indoor window aquaponics system, and one backyard system that are operational.

One indoor window system is what is referred to as an NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) system which has only recently been finished and has currently begun to sprout various herbs. The system is currently being used to test a new space-efficient biofilter configuration for long-term growth, to get a good baseline for our next generation window NFT system.


The other indoor window system we built is a Media Bed system. It utilizes a gravel media bed (which is affectionately referred to as "Flood and Drain") to move nutrients to the plant.

The backyard system is our greatest success, it is a second generation backyard system we built, and it has exceeded our expectations over the last five months, both in terms of productivity and stability. The biggest issue is that it was designed for ease of access to test things, and so is not visually appealing. We are currently working on a finished model that is ready for commercial sales using the same techniques.


Our Goals

Our initial goal is for $3,000 which will allow us to develop our indoor systems to be more marketable and affordable.  Every donator will get a vote to help craft the company motto, details to be given via email once the campaign completes.

If we reach much higher goals, we can accomplish more!

If we are able to reach $50,000, we could develop a method to design and build affordable systems that can go into an individual's backyard.  If we reach this goal, every donator will get a link, via email, to a video of two of our board members, David and Derek, doing a crazy-prospector happy-dance!

Our ultimate goal is to be able to reach $200,000 so that we can construct a commercial sized greenhouse and aquaponic system in order to sell quality produce to both local customers and restaurants as well as perfect our indoor and backyard systems!  If we reach this level we will give a customized coin to every person that donates $25 or more!


Why Do We Need You?

Quite simply, starting an aquaponics business is expensive. We are not asking for Crowd Funding to fund our entire business, but we need some tools and other materials in order to finish testing prior to offering any sales. We have put as much of our personal money as we can into the business, and will continue to place more into it everyday. With your help, our equipment problems will be over, and we can begin to focus solely on development.

Your pledge will be used to help us make our functional systems "beautiful." We want to use wooden frames for the system. Why wood? To put it simply because of it's strength, durability, beauty and environmental impact. Wood is both biodegradable and renewable, making it nearly ideal for us to use. However, the wood itself presents us with unique problems. We need to be able to treat the wood to make it resistant to any kind of water absorption as well as shape the wood as needed. Table saws, press drills, all the way to the simple hand held screwdriver are needed.


Why Help Us?

We have been researching aquaponics for the last three years prior to developing our current systems. Our researchers are up to date on the latest news and technology regarding aquaponics, and are working to expand the body of knowledge in this emerging field. We believe that aquaponics is the answer to many of our current and future agricultural problems. We have recently been led to believe (by personal testimony of those who have been effected) that food that has not been chemically treated can even have have positive effects on disorders such as Autism. While we stress that no scientific testing has been done to prove or disprove these testimonies, we do hope to one day be able to contribute to such research with the help of a major university.

We have been in contact with Oklahoma State University about our beliefs and products. They have offered to help us with our business and possibly marketing our product internationally as well as connecting us with their New Product Development Center. They have several high tech options that we are not able to obtain on our own, and they will assist us in making the best product possible.


Did You Know?

Globally, the agricultural sector consumes about 70% of the planet's accessible freshwater – more than twice that of industry (23%), and dwarfing municipal use (8%).

Between 15–35% of water use by agriculture is estimated to be unsustainable. Moreover, agriculture wastes 60% or 1,500 trillion litres, of the 2,500 trillion litres of water it uses each year.

Excessive irrigation can also increase soil salinity and wash pollutants and sediment into rivers – causing damage to freshwater ecosystems and species as well as those further downstream, including coral reefs and coastal fish breeding grounds.

The above statistics are available at http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/impacts/water_use/

Billions of tons of food (50% of all produced food) is wasted every year.Globally, retailers generate 1.6 million tons of food waste annually.