This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Aquaponics is the idea of producing vegetables and fish in the same closed system. It combines aquaculture, or fish farming, with hydroponics, a way to grow plants without soil. Supporters see aquaponics as a way to increase world food supplies and reduce climate change, groundwater pollution and overfishing.

Sylvia Bernstein says the idea is as old as nature.

SYLVIA BERNSTEIN: "Aquaponics is really a recirculating wetland system, so it's happening right on the banks of our lakes."