I’m Alice-Marie – I’m an aspiring explorer that likes to explore the world close to home. I founded Bristol fish project in late 2011 as a response to the challenges of urban metabolic losses (waste). I saw through other’s experiments that you could use aquaponics as an intervention to close material loops but also to build community and shorten the food delivery chain. So this social action research project was born! Now 1 award winning pilot, 2 demonstrations and 24 graduates from our training course later and I’m joined by wonderful directors and we are in a position to commercialise our learnings as a community supported aquaponic farm for Bristol.

My background is eclectic. I come from a farming family, I trained in geosciences, in social sustainability and wrote a thesis on web-enabled collaborative innovation networks. I worked the duration of my undergraduate studies as a chef. Somehow or other I gained along the way some of the skills to build and run a 5000L aquaponics commercial pilot with a lot of help from my friends. In the process I also learned to use an angle grinder, build a splash proof electricity supply, plumb in a myriad of hydroponic forms and keep fish alive in a recirculating aquaculture system; turning waste food into their feed, and growing plants from their waste all year round.

I am a keen supporter of networks and industrial clusters. I co founded the European aquaponics network (which merged with the American Association). I’m a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs and of the Schumacher Institute where I worked for 7 years. I love learning new things, am a futurist, humanist, optimist and I believe one should act on one’s good ideas. Having left Bristol Fish Project at the end of 2018, I am currently enjoying motherhood and finishing up a phd on how we could transform the way we make forms in hydroponics. In parallel I mix more artistic pursuits with lecturing and hosting workshops and with offering advice and consultancy on circular economics in textiles and agrifood domains and more generally for aquaponics/hydroponics projects (see http://www.alicemariearcher.com).