I would like to collect invasive weed "poles" (like Arundo donax, the bamboo reed) to build permaculture structures like an aquaculture-greenhouse both quonset-style and hemisphere-style. Does anyone have bamboo canes or small fish of any type for free or exchange? Maybe you a place nearby that the owners would be happy to have some of the bamboo canes removed or maybe they have a pile of canes that are just sitting in the sun. I will pick up with a truck. I can exchange for any number of subtropical plants, lots of succulents, several large Peruvian rose apple cactus, etc.

Also, I would need a number of Tilapia x hybrids (~40% edible "meat"/live weight or similar) and I will pay for these. Everything will be as anonymous as needed. Cal Fish and Game has a moratorium on any Tilapia or Sarotherodon species statewide for the next five years, unless you have a large commercial growers license for at least five years running or get a letter of permission, which they will not write or give (Dr. Maxwell, CFG, Los Alamitos Office, 2009). They have a list of ten species that are all freshwater and carnivores. In permaculture, if one eats consumers, they should be herbivores on land or in the water, verdad? It shortens the food chain for better efficiency. Tilapia grow like fast, can be prepared as a tasty dinner, breed easily, are one of the most efficient converters of food with one of the highest assimilation efficiencies planetwide and don't waste energy (calories) in movement against gravity, as they are nuetrally bouyant. They need warmer temperatures all year to have sustainable harvests Cal Fish and Game officially restricts even mosquito fish, as I just got about fifteen of them from the GLACVCD Office in Santa Fe Springs yesterday, but they have to know everything about their use also, as they check your yard, project, etc. as they deliver them.

I am also looking for an inoculum or start up culture of Spirulina platensis, the blue-green algae originally from Chad in central Africa that has all eight of the essential amino acids, which we must get daily and we can build/synthesize just about every protein known to exist in our bodies, and doubles its population of cells faster than daily in many cases. It has a very high net primary productivity (growth) and protein content. In 1984 a barrel of fish-flake-like dried Spirulina retailed for about $1400 retail and it was raised from free cow manure by Solar Aquafarms in Sun City, near Hemet (nice tours if you can get one).

Do you have a site where a permaculture demonstartion of this can be done? I live in La Mirada near Fullerton, on the L.A./O.C. borderline, so drives cross-county are less interesting, but do-able a few times. Local sites are preferred. What does that mean in the "car capital of the world"? Give it a try. I will work to start you up.

Basically the fish have gill rakers that strain the algae from the water column and the algae can receive nutrients from various "waste"-food substrates. The system has two cultured potentailly high-end products that could be demonstrated and be successful in the city. If you add a Malaysian prawn or a Marron (large crayfish species and can be the size of a lobster) or a red swamp crayfish (local, but resitricted by Cal Fish and Game) population to the mix, you can possibly extract three edible product lines. Tilapia at the top of the water column and in the mid-water zone, shrimp or crayfish feeding on any bottom detritus, and Spirulina all work together. I did something like this a while ago. I was wondering if L.A. is ready for this more permacultured approach now... Comments, questions?

Towards sustainability,

Best,

Dennis Pilien

LAPDC Group 2006-2007