Organic Vegetables & Fruits in Trinidad & Tobago

Conventional Agricultural Food Production   “ Conventional farming , also known as  industrial agriculture , refers to farming systems which include the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other continual inputs, genetically modified organisms, concentrated animal feeding operations, heavy irrigation, heavy irrigation, or concentrated  monoculture production.  Despite its name, conventional agricultural methods have only been in development since the late Nineteenth Century, and did not become widespread until after World War 2.

                     Aquaponics Food Production                Aquaponics  is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants)  that grows  fish  and  plants  together in one integrated system. The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filter the water for the fish. The third participants are  microbes  (nitrifying bacteria). These bacteria convert ammonia from the fish waste first into nitrites, and then into nitrates.  Nitrates are the form of nitrogen that plants can uptake and use to grow.  Solid fish waste is turned into vermicompost that also acts as food for the plants. In combining both hydroponic and aquaculture systems, aquaponics capitalizes on their benefits, and eliminates the drawbacks of each. www.theaquaponicsour...

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without using soil (i.e., soil less). This technique instead uses a mineral nutrient solution in a water solvent, allowing rapid nutrient uptake. https://www.maximumyield.com/definition/70/hydroponics

•          Organic production is farming which adheres to the regulations, production and processing  requirements of the certifying agency eg. USDA. Typically these regulations and processes include: •         conserving natural resources •         preventing commingling with nonorganic products) Non- use of most synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, growth hormones, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering (genetically modified organisms or GMOs)