Aquaponics Association seeks signatures to support food safety in aquaponics

The following is a letter issued by Brian Filipowich, chairman of the Aquaponics Association:

"At the Putting Out Fruits conference last month, we all agreed that it was important for our community to make a positive statement asserting the food safety status of aquaponics. Part of the motivation was that a major food safety certifier, CanadaGAP, recently announced it will revoke certification for aquaponic farms in 2020, citing unfounded concerns.

The withdrawal of aquaponics eligibility from this certifier has already set back commercial operations in Canada.

We believe that the aquaponics community must make a positive statement asserting our food safety credentials to ensure that policy and large-scale decisions that affect our future are based on concrete science, not unfounded concerns.

We are collecting signatures on the 2019 Aquaponics Food Safety Statement from farms, research institutions, schools, and other organizations that stand behind it and would like your voice to be heard.

If you would like your farm or organization to sign on, click the link below. The deadline to sign the statement is Nov. 15, 2019. Once we collect all the signatures we will publish and broadcast the statement, and ask you to do the same."