Gil Friend and David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

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Basement-grown alfalfa sprouts are harvested
for market.

FRIEND: There has been a good deal of research lately—we've been involved with some of it ourselves—into the feasibility of raising fish in basements. Much of the work has been done with rainbow trout, but I now believe that's a rather unfortunate choice because trout require high protein food and low water temperatures, which forces you into the expense of buying special food and operating cooling equipment.

The people at the New Alchemy Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts—on the other hand—have been working with tilapia . . . a warm-water fish related to catfish. Not only can this species live in warmer water than trout . . . it thrives on algae, insect larvae, and table scraps. Raising tilapia in urban basements would be one good way to recycle some of our organic waste into usable animal protein.

PLOWBOY: Earlier you said that any sensible food production system must be tied in with waste disposal. How can that work on a neighborhood level'?

FRIEND: Well, in answering this question, let me first point out that nature never ever wastes anything. We've been violating that basic principle for a long time . . . and, for a long time, it didn't matter. When cities were very small it was OK to dump sewage in the river because there were enough biological organisms there to break it down. But we've now reached the point where our metropolitan areas are so big—and they're producing such a volume of waste products—that the biological systems of the waterways are overloaded. The lakes and rivers not only can't handle all the crap being dumped into them . . . they're being destroyed by it.

MORRIS: Even the ocean can't handle all the waste we throw into it. New York City has been dumping its sewage at sea for—I don't know how many years—quite a long time. Within the last 12 or 18 months, though, they've discovered there's an island of gunk—it comes several square mile—gradually floating in toward the city like a giant blob. And you want to hear something nutty? The city engineers—instead of dealing with the source of the problem—have announced that the solution is to build the sewer pipe farther out to sea!

PLOWBOY: So, how do you suggest cities handle their sewage?

FRIEND: We're saying that it's not only difficult to throw it away, but that—in fact—the stuff is a resource. Much of our waste material, properly processed, can produce high grade soil conditioners and fertilizers . . . and they can help us change from a chemical-based agriculture to a more ecologically sound way of growing food.

MORRIS: And—in many cases—we can use those waste materials as a resource in an urban community merely by shortening the distribution loops we were talking about a few minutes ago.

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