紐約客把 “魚菜共生” 搬進都市叢林

New Yorkers bring fish farms to urban jungle

"養魚兼種菜"紐約公寓化身有機農場

NEW YORK, (AFP) - So you recycle, drive a small car, and try to eat organic. But what about running an eco-sustainable fish farm combined with a naturally fertilized vegetable patch in your kitchen?

(法新社紐約外電) 你或許力行資源回收、節碳開小車、盡量吃有機食材。然而你可曾想過在廚房弄一個永續環保魚菜共生系統，讓養魚的肥水自然滋潤蔬菜嗎?

Christopher Toole and Anya Pozdeeva, two former New York bankers who founded the Society for Aquaponic Values and Education (SAVE), are there to help. "We call it 'beyond organic,'" Pozdeeva, 39, said.

前紐約銀行家克里斯多夫和安亞，成立 “魚菜共生教育學會”(SAVE)，幫助人們完成這個夢想。39歲的安亞說，這比從事有機還棒。

Aquaponics is a technique with ancient roots for breeding tank fish, recycling their effluent-filled water to fertilize vegetation, then allowing this naturally cleaned water to drip back into the tank below.

“魚菜共生”根源古早農耕時代，利用魚塘養魚，再進而利用魚塘水源，為農作物提供養分，並進而讓淨化後的水回流到魚塘。

It's a perfect, miniature eco system that will let you grow healthy food right in a cramped apartment with almost no specialist equipment. "We built our system just from trash cans," said Pozdeeva, a slender woman who emigrated from Russia's Siberian region 20 years ago and still speaks English with a gentle accent.

它是一個完美的微型生態系統，你幾乎不靠專業設備，就可在狹小公寓裡生產健康食物。安亞說，「我們用垃圾桶改裝成 “魚菜共生系統”。」她身材纖細，20年前從西伯利亞移民美國，說著帶腔的英文。

If growing fish to eat in your New York apartment sounds unlikely, then Toole and Pozdeeva are even unlikelier urban eco pioneers. Just a short time ago they were bankers working crazy hours among the skyscrapers of Manhattan, a far cry from the gritty Bronx where they are based today.

如果在紐約公寓養魚聽起來怪怪，那麼克里斯多夫和安亞更是怪怪的城市環保先鋒。不久前他們還是銀行家，整天在曼哈頓摩天大樓裡瘋狂地工作，與目前在紐約布隆克斯的生活大相逕庭。

After the 2008 financial crash floored the banking industry, Toole, a vice president at Sovereign Bank, discovered he had a serious eye problem, which he says was stress-related. And both of them were severely disenchanted with their careers.

2008年金融海嘯重擊銀行業，當時還是Sovereign Bank副總裁的克里斯多夫，發現自己的眼疾可能跟工作壓力太大有關，而當時兩夫妻對工作均產生嚴重失望。

"They know how to squeeze every drop out of you and then throw you away," Pozdeeva said. "We wanted two feet on the ground," said Toole,47, and striking-looking with a bushy gray beard and pork pie hat.

安亞表示，「他們知道如何榨乾你，然後把你甩開。」克里斯多夫說「我們只想腳踏實地地生活。」他今年47歲，留著濃密花白的鬍子，頭帶捲邊平頂帽。

Instead, he put two feet in the water. Toole knew a little about fish from childhood summers with his scientist father out at Woods Hole in Massachusetts, a famed marine biology research center in the Cape Cod area. Aquaponics, he reckoned, would let him marry sustainable food production with what he hopes will be an equally sustainable business model.

不料，他卻一頭栽了進去。克里斯多夫自小暑假就常與科學家老爸前往麻州伍德區著名的伍茲霍爾海洋生物研究中心，因此對魚類有一些了解。他認為， “魚菜共生”可以結合永續生產，並進而變成永續商業。