At Billy's Botanicals, we utilize the power of the sun, the purity of water, and the perfection of a controlled environment to produce organic local food!
Our mission at Billy's Botanicals is to create a food production company that provides Savannah and the surrounding areas with fresh, sustainably raised fish and aquaponically grown produce. We join the efforts of millions who are dedicated to local, organic, and environmentally friendly farming practices.
Billy and I have relocated from Richmond VA to Richmond Hill GA to start Billy's Botanicals on a commercially viable scale. We both graduated Virginia Commonwealth University and continued to bartend because jobs were sparse through the recession. To quote Jane Fishman in her piece for the Savannah Morning News, we had to get "creative." We had always practiced aquaponics. Billy even had an entire system set up in our laundry room! It was time for us to forge a living doing what we were truly passionate about.
The industrialized food system is not meeting the basic needs of it's consumers. Rather than focus on quality, they are driven by cost cutting and mass production. Miles of land stretch devoted to rows of genetically modified mono cultured super crops laced with pesticides. Huge ships run along our coastlines over fishing and polluting our water sources. This model of food production has not promoted efficacy, health, or sustainability.
Billy's Botanicals uses innovative fish farming practices merged with hydroponics to raise fish and produce. The water from the fish is diverted and ran through our troughs where a large variety of plants grow. The plants are fertilized by the nutrients the fish create and in turn, filter the water. This symbiotic relationship between plants and animals works in harmony of nature, not in spite of it.
We currently have a smaller system set up that house about 2000 tilapia and 5 troughs. We are nearing the completion of our greenhouse, that will house a larger system with far more plants and about the same amount of fish.
We have had a lot of success at Forsyth Farmers market in Savannah where we started as vendors in March of 2014. We have gotten great feedback from our customers. Everybody loves the fish! This is a thrilling start for us and we can't wait to be in full production.
