Aquaponics and Earth

Burn Serious Calories and Prevent Cancer

– By The American Institute of Cancer Research

Bend, twist, reach, and pull.

While this may sound like an intensive aerobics class, these are actually movements you do while working in the garden. Researchers estimate that gardening burns an average of 300 calories per hour, while heavy yard work can burn more than 600 calories per hour! Engaging in regular physical activity like gardening is also an excellent way to lower your risk of some cancers.

Here’s the Dirt
Gardening is an ideal form of exercise because it combines three important types of physical activity: strength, endurance and flexibility.

Spending time in a garden is also believed by many to have physical and emotional healing effects. According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association, gardening can benefit people who are recovering from physical illness by retraining their muscles and improving coordination, balance, and strength. In addition, simply spending time in nature reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, and relieves muscle tension.

But the cancer-protective benefits of gardening don’t end there. Studies show that gardeners eat a wider variety of vegetables (rich in disease-fighting antioxidants and phytochemicals), and have a higher overall intake of vegetables than non-gardeners.

The Old-Fashioned Way Is Better
To reap the maximum health benefit from your gardening, labor intensively. Turn off your leaf blower and pick up a rake. Use manual clippers, trimmers and lawnmowers if possible.

Try to stick to a regular “garden exercise” routine. Rather than saving up your outdoor work for one marathon weekend session, schedule at least 30-60 minutes of gardening two or three times per week. If you’re away from home during the day, early mornings and evenings are ideal
gardening times.

Work at a steady, constant speed, but be sure to change positions every 10 minutes or so to avoid overusing a particular muscle group. If you start by bending down to pull weeds, stand to prune the hedges next. Also alternate which side of the body you use. Pull with your right hand, then with your left.

Find a Row to Hoe
Even if you don’t own an acre, a small yard can provide ample opportunity to dig, plant, and weed. You can also look for a local garden on the American Community Garden Association’s website. Although your workout will be more limited if you garden on a balcony or patio, you can harvest a good crop of nutritious vegetables in a space as small as 16 square feet.

After your physician gives you the “green thumbs up,” keep these tips in mind:

• To prevent muscle soreness, back pain, and repetitive strain injuries, warm up before starting and cool down after you are finished by walking and stretching.
• Use steady, smooth motions to avoid injury.
• Protect yourself from the sun by wearing sunscreen, long-sleeved shirts and pants, and a wide-brimmed hat.
• Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, especially if the temperature and humidity are high.
• When picking up tools or lifting bags of soil, bend your knees and keep your back straight.

Note: Aquaponics and Earth does special training on how to start a garden in your back yard that has very little space that is very easy to start and maintain both young and old.

You would be surprised at how little space you need. Or if you want more space we can show you how to properly lay out your garden. We will come on a offering basis and the proceeds will go to our current Orphanage projects. Just e-mail us  fall planting  is starting now in Texas.

Happy Gardening!

Linda Lutton

            CHICAGO (ANS) — Maria Labra has been urban gardening for years, raising vegetables in her backyard and along the steep railroad embankment that runs alongside her busy street, but this year she plans to harvest a new crop to feed her family — fish.

            Downstairs, in a corner of Labra’s basement, water ripples gently over rocks and plants, chayote vines crawl toward a grow light on the ceiling, and 30 tilapia fish jump for the fish food Labra’s daughter drops into their 55-gallon tank.

            Labra’s family is one of the first to participate in Proyecto Pescado, an urban aquaculture project to help provide protein-rich food for families in a low-income Mexican community on Chicago’s southwest side, teach residents about ecology and incubate future businesses.

            “This project shows people how everything is related to everything else,” said Neris Lopez, co-founder of EcoVida, a neighborhood-based organization devoted to ecology and environmental education that’s spearheading the project.

            Labra’s tilapia, a hearty fish that can thrive in tight environs, swim in a 55-gallon barrel that’s part of a mini-ecosystem, a “living machine.”

            A small pump circulates water from the fish tank through rock-filled PVC tubing to cleanse it. The purified water then runs by miniature lily pads and potted plants — in addition to chayote, Labra is growing ginger and rice — before it trickles back into the fish tank. Except for the barrel, the entire system is set up on sawhorses beneath a small window and takes up about 4 x 5 feet of space.

            Labra is not the only city dweller with her own fish farm. “It’s beginning to catch on as viable agricultural production system,” says Alison Meares, Chicago program manager for Heifer Project International, a nonprofit organization that works worldwide to improve nutrition and foster economic development opportunities through donations of animals to poor families.

            “What we’ve largely done is had these huge catfish farms, particularly in the south of the United States. People are beginning to explore the opportunities for doing it indoors in the city.”

            Heifer Project is funding the initial phase of Proyecto Pescado by purchasing fish and materials for EcoVida’s first six living machines. A fully stocked living machine built from new materials costs about $150; using recycled materials can cut that cost in half. Families involved in Proyecto Pescado don’t pay anything up front but must agree to provide technical assistance and $50 start-up money to another family after a year’s time.

            Proyecto Pescado is Heifer Project’s second aquaculture project in Chicago. On the city’s South Side, young people in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development care for two living machines that have a different design — a three-tank system that doesn’t allow for cultivation of edible plants but is based on the same principles of a recirculating system of fish, plants and a calcium-carbonate filter.

            In Milwaukee, in another youth-based project sponsored by Heifer Project, the nonprofit group Farm City Link, operates 10 living machines in the city’s greenhouse. “We’re introducing the kids to the future and starting to get them to think about a sustainable lifestyle,” said Will Allen, founder and director of Farm City Link, adding that food security is a major emphasis of the program. “We’re really looking at this long term as a way for people to feed themselves.”

            In Toronto, Annex Organics has a similar goal. “We’re trying to see how productive the city can actually be,” said Lauren Baker, manager and co-founder of Annex Organics, which runs demonstration gardens — including a rooftop garden –and two living machines in a Toronto warehouse. Annex Organics is credited with adapting the design of the living machine originally developed by Canadian Dr. John Todd as an ecologically friendly way to clean wastewater for small-scale fish production.

            Baker thinks the idea of urban fish production will catch on. “We do public workshops on living machines, and tons of people come. Then they go home and they adapt the design for themselves, and sometimes they just build a really tiny living machine with just ornamental fish, and sometimes they do something a lot bigger.”

            Lopez of EcoVida hopes that Proyecto Pescado may expand commercially at some point, perhaps through the formation of a cooperative. Farm-raised tilapia goes for about $8 per pound at local health food stores. But it takes about seven months for the fish to grow from fingerlings to about a pound and a half, when they are ready to be harvested.

            “It’s not intended to be a big moneymaker at this level,” said Meares. “It’s intended to provide protein for the families more than anything else. Some of the families hope that they may be able to sell some of it to neighbors or have a relationship with a restaurant, but they’re a long way from being able to do that.”

            Still, Baker points out, families can realize economic benefits from raising their own food. “You’re not generating revenue directly from the fish, but you wouldn’t have to buy fish or meat, so you’d be able to save money and divert it to something else.” The fish can be frozen, and eventually families will be able to stagger production so that they can harvest fish every month.

            Baker and Lopez both point out that benefits of the living machines are more than monetary. “The whole system really connects people to the cycles of life,” says Baker. “You learn about those cycles, and your family basically becomes integrated with the living machine, feeding the fish and caring for the plants and learning about where your food comes from.”

            In Labra’s case, caring for the fish has brought unity to her family by giving Labra and her teen-age daughter an activity they can share. It’s also helped Labra fight depression. “It’s like having a little river inside your house,” says Lopez, “a fountain where you can hear the rippling of the water all day and night — with the hope of life.”

© COPYRIGHT 1999 The American News Service