[vc_row][vc_column][vc_hoverbox image="273855" primary_title="" hover_title="Interview on Abey Torrez an Instructor at SFCC" hover_background_color="orange"][/vc_hoverbox][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInDown"]This week Abey Torrez who is 52 years old, a SFCC (Santa Fe Community College) adjunct instructor and Greenhouse technician was chosen by me (Bridgette Hall) for an interview. He was an instructor for one of my Controlled Environment Agriculture classes and did an outstanding job teaching the material and making the class intriguing.I recently went to visit the SFCC campus and I ran into Abey Torrez in the dome greenhouse. Inside there he showed me the crops they were growing and I was shocked to see he was growing pumpkins with the aquaponic system.Abey Torrez- “What made me interested in aquaponics was the ability to provide both healthy greens and protein at the same time in a holistic manner! I will be keeping aquaponics as a hobby but I hope to keep teaching it! Over at SFCC, we are running a scaled down version of the gold standard Aquaponics systems the University of Virgin Islands has. It’s a mature system that was established in 2011. We have both tilapia and koi as fish providing the nutrients for our deep water culture (DWC) beds. I believe that aquaponics along with controlled environment agriculture can impact communities in a positive manner. If designed and managed correctly we can provide food and fish to many areas that are considered food deserts or that have unusable soil or growing conditions such drought stricken areas or very cold harsh conditions.”Socials: Facebook @ Abey TorrezTo the right are images of the pumpkins and other crops growing at SFCC[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_images_carousel images="273856,273857,273858,273859" img_size="300x500"][vc_facebook][vc_tweetmeme][vc_pinterest][/vc_column][/vc_row]