Shrimp farmers from Texas are working to patent their vibrio-suppression technology to prevent diseases in shrimp crop.
NaturalShrimp began to test this new technology on 65,000-gallon tanks in late June. The vibrio-suppression tech uses electrical currents to prevent bacteria from entering the water in closed-loop systems and infecting the growing shrimp.
So far, the shrimp have been growing well with the help of the vibrio-suppression tech. Buyers have begun lining up to purchase the apparently all-natural product.
This could spell good news for tumultuous shrimp industry. Even though the industry has improved in India, other parts of the world are still struggling to recover from the decline.
Because of bacterial infections and disease that ravage aquafarming locations, the industry has been hit and miss. One week, a shrimp farmer might produce hundreds of pounds of shrimp. The next? Under 50 pounds.
While there are nearly 911 million acres of farmland in the United States split among over 2 million farms, the shrimp industry has gradually decreased since the shrimp collapse in the late 90s.
Since then, NaturalShrimp isn’t the only group trying to improve the aquafarming industry.
European online grocer, Ocado, has implemented vertical urban farms in the hope that they will grow more product for less money. How do they plan on doing it? With the help of robots.
Their “merchandised growing system” will grow more than just vegetables, however. The grocer hopes to add fruits, poultry, and even fish.
The Standard explains the patent for the vertical farming process.
“Produce would be grown in trays inside stacked boxes tended by wheeled, wifi-connected robo-pickers on rails, which winch up the trays when the produce is ripe and dispatch them to another robot for picking and packing. Robots would also be used for planting, pruning and spraying pesticides,” reports writer Mark Blunden.
However, the patent application has been met with some opposition.
Compassion in World Farming member, Dr. Nick Palmer, claims it would be inhumane to raise animals, fish, and crustaceans in this type of environment.
“A factory farming system where animals are likely to be crammed together with little space, natural light or stimuli would be a step backward,” he claimed.
Right now, NaturalShrimp’s product is patent pending. While not every provisional patent application will qualify for a full patent, if the group doesn’t apply for a regular patent within twelve months, their invention will be unprotected legally.
As upgrades in the farming industry continue to improve, it’s undetermined which techniques will yield the best results.
