Food Pyramid rethinks the disproven dietary suggestions of Big Food and the resultant mode of food production dominant in the late twentieth century.  The work creates a recirculating aquaponic garden that grows all of the ingredients for fish tacos with zero waste, no soil, and no fertilizer.  It produces cleaner air and water, and an endless source of food for humans, local flora and fauna.

Having successfully prototyped an aquaponic garden in the front courtyard of Materials & Applications in the Back2Basics exhibit, we immediately jumped at the idea of recreating the setup for Fallen Fruit’s EATLACMA exhibition, albeit in a more provacative manner.  Like our previous venture we looked to use waste from the tilapia pond to act as nutrients for plants which would provide fruits and vegetables for human consumption and a habitable environment for local fauna.  In this setup, however, we replaced bog planters with IBC totes set vertically along a prefabricated steel skeleton for maximized visual impact and optimal loading capacity. 

Even more so than the setup tested at Materials & Applications, we treated the Food Pyramid as a test bed for a variety of growing/cultivating ideas.  We kept a daily log of our activities and fine tuned the setup to run at its most efficient production rate.  By the end of the exhibition, we were able to harvest enough fish, vegetables and garnish to create a fish taco feast for the closing ceremonies.

Design Team: Didier Hess

Position Held: Project Manager/Lead Fabricator