Blood Tribe resident Dan McGinnis is hoping to address several pervasive issues in rural Indigenous communities with the help of open-source aquaponics technology.
“We’re hoping this can be a stepping stone to even greater things,” McGinnis said Monday.
McGinnis said it was sparked by a lecture he sat in on at Lethbridge College that opened his eyes to the accessibility and sustainability of integrated aquaponics farming.
He is now growing high-quality, low-cost produce and fish for his family and hopes to eventually do the same for his entire community.
“We’ve run them off-grid here now for a couple of years. [These systems] work. I’m trying to figure out a way that we can do things differently,” he said, adding that the project could help young people on reserves access agriculture careers more easily.