Aquaponics Incubator Farm
Planting Justice Aquaponics Incubator Farm
Planting Justice’s Aquaponics Incubator farm represents the culmination of a 12-year long dream for the organization. Just 100′ down the block from PJ’s 2-acre nursery on 105th Avenue in Sobrante Park, Deep East Oakland, this resident-led farm will build a replicable and scalable model for sustainable food production in the harshest of conditions. In a community that is deprived of clean topsoil, clean air, healthy food, and dignified living-wage jobs, like so many communities throughout the U.S., this project will demonstrate how to grow an abundance of organic produce with just a fraction of the water needed for in-ground growing, and open source that technology to support East Oakland residents in acquiring their own land and owning their own aquaponics farms to achieve neighborhood scale food sovereignty, community self determination, and holistic wellness. Given the climate emergency threatening agriculture itself, this project is literally one of survival.
Developing the Aquaponics Incubator Farm will enable PJ to:
1) Create 15-20 living-wage jobs for long-term residents of Sobrante Park, including formerly incarcerated youth/adults and others with systemic barriers to meaningful and inspiring careers
2) Grow approximately 180,000 pounds of certified organic produce AND over 125,000 organic nursery starts each and every year for our community
3) Develop emergency re-entry housing for staff and community members who are deprived of safe and dignified homes
4) Educate hundreds of East Oakland youth and beginning farmers in urban aquaponics production ever year
5) Partner with UC Davis to bring university-level research and best practices into the heart of deep East Oakland, to prepare residents for owing and operating their own aquaponics farms
6) Launch a cooperative incubator farm that open-sources the technology to replicate and scale resident-owned aquaponics farms as part of a multi-site worker owned aquaponics farming cooperative
7) Demonstrate how to grow healthy food and create good jobs in places that lack healthy topsoil with a method that is resilient in the face of climate emergency, drought, wildfire smoke, heat waves, and industrial pollution
8) Provide healthy produce 7 days/week on a sliding scale to residents who are currently denied all access to affordable organic food