| FFA Nation

Chapter Makes a Splash With Aquaculture Lab

01/27/2010 |

If you ever find yourself in Mountain City, Tenn., chances are, it will be for one of two reasons: You either belong to the Johnson County FFA Chapter, which makes its home there, or, more likely, you’re visiting the chapter’s state-of-the-art “Alternative Farming Center,” an aquaculture-hydroponics lab that people flock to from all over the world.

“We’ve had people from 38 states and 18 foreign countries,” says FFA chapter advisor Harvey Burniston. “Everyone from university students doing research projects to Korean scientists here to see how our geothermal system works.”

That geothermal system, it turns out, is the key to heating and cooling the program’s centerpiece greenhouse, a 9,000-square-foot facility used for growing fish and plants that the chapter then sells.
“It’s a triple-crop system,” Burniston explains.

The fish, including tilapia and koi (25,000 pounds worth at any one time), are raised in 100,000 gallons of water in five separate raceways. That’s the first crop. The second crop includes water-garden plants, which float with the fish, and bedding plants, grown on roll-top tables just above the water. And the third crop?

“Ferns in hanging baskets,” Burniston says. “We water them with the fish water.”

The fish and plants are grown year-round, as are a variety of vegetables in the chapter’s three other greenhouses (totaling an additional 13,000 square feet).

An on-site fish-processing facility allows chapter members to process fillets as quickly as they can pull fish from the water, and a retail area is used for selling their products directly to the public.

The facility runs year-round, and students who are interested can work there in the summer as part of their supervised agricultural experience (SAE).

“A lot of people, even the students here, have no idea how high-tech we are,” says Emily Sajdak, one of three chapter vice presidents. “The standards here are really high. I feel blessed. To have a facility like this, right here, it’s amazing.”

Bouncing Back

Back in the mid ’90s, Burniston says, Johnson County FFA was in need of help. Enrollment was low, perhaps because there just wasn’t a lot the program could offer. A large grant helped turn that around, and by 1997, the aquacenter was up and running.

Today, nearly a third of the students at Johnson County High School are enrolled in agriculture education and members of the FFA chapter.

“We have about 200 members now, and the changes in our students have been incredible,” Burniston says. “They’ve gained so much self-confidence and self-esteem. Now, wherever these kids go, they’re the center of attention. They’ve been winning competitions, we’ve had state and national finalists, and we’ve gone to nationals in agricultural sales the last three years.”

Much of that success is a direct result of the responsibilities that all FFA members have for the greenhouses.

“The entire program is set up like a small business,” Burniston says, noting that in addition to the aquaculture facility, the program also has everything else you’d expect: a large agriculture-mechanics shop, for example, and courses on subjects like forestry, floriculture, animal science and animal care. “The students raise plants from seed to sale. They raise and sell hydroponic lettuce and cucumbers. They raise the fish to when they’re a pound-and-a-half fillet.”

He adds, “When you spend so much time in there, things click. Like the periodic table in chemistry – because they have to test the water when they’re learning hydroponics and aquaculture, they’ve seen firsthand why they had to study that stuff in their chemistry classes. Or logarithms. PH is logarithmic, so they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s why I had to learn that in math class.’”

Ready for the Future

According to senior Tara Mahan, all that direct involvement is just part of the Johnson County FFA experience. And no matter where your interests lie, almost all of it is fun – or at least interesting.

“I’ve fed the fish, filleted fish, helped with sales and done general maintenance,” says Tara, who plans to study equestrian science and business management in college. “But my favorite part has been working with the customers who come in and the face-to-face time that I get with them. I guess I’m more of a people person than a dead-fish person.”

Christina Maurice, a former chapter president and valedictorian of her class, would probably concur – although her plans for next year include studying wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida, where fish will almost certainly be part of the picture. “My experience here has been great,” says Christina. “Everything has been hands-on. It’s so much better than just sitting in a classroom and learning from books. You go over there and you feed the fish, you do the pH levels, you do all the testing, and you actually learn what it’s like to run things.”

“I really believe that everything I’ve learned here, and all the time I’ve spent here, has really helped me learn everything I need to know to be ready for college.”