Living Systems Institute

An integrated food production system is designed to enclose life cycles of plants, animals, bacterias, and fungi in a system that uses all the byproducts of each species in the production of other food species.

In this basic system, we have incorporated a solar collector to store day time heat in the growing medium and the water in the fish tanks.

The growing medium is wood chips and manure.

The growing medium grows vegetables year round.  We are still experimenting with enclosures and thermal mass to air space ratios to see if we can grow warm season crops year round.

3 intermediate bulk containers are cut down to provide a water tank and bell siphon plant growing tank/ water purification system.

Chicken waste is processed in the worm beds providing worms to feed both fish and chickens.  Worm castings serve as planting medium in the growing beds.

Waste from chicken butchering can be dried and fed to the fish.

The dimensions of this coop are sufficient for about 24 hens depending on how much outdoor space is available.  That would produce enough eggs for about 8 families.  The kitchen scraps produced by the participating families can be an important portion of the food for the chickens.

See the Slide Show Explanation

"This is the best I have been able to do with the general knowledge I possess.  I know that there are people out there a lot smarter than I am.  I challenge you to integrate more species and more functions to produce food with greater integrated efficiency and share what you design with the world."

David Braden

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