LOS ANGELES -- If your yard is tiny, or even just a balcony, Jordan Karambelas has a suggestion for growing food organically: a good-looking aquaponics system that uses recycled water enriched by fish poop to irrigate vegetables planted above.
Karambelas, a junior at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California, is a longtime Girl Scout who was looking for a Gold Award project, the organization's culminating achievement. She started a Permaculture Club at the school this year to make her fellow students more aware of ways to grow food "in harmony with nature," and chose the aquaponics project as a way to promote that message.
Her work was inspired by Mike Garcia, a South Bay landscape contractor and "certified permaculturist" with Enviroscape LA who has spent decades working on water conservation and recycling methods.
