The vision of the 99 Percent Monkeys project is to be a Johnny Appleseed for aquaponics projects worldwide, using social media to help support aquaponics and sustainability projects, both with funding and information. What does aquaponics have to offer that's so great, you may ask? Check out the video 1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost for one example of what an aquaponics project can achieve. 

Enclosed aquaponics systems require little soil and only around 5% of the water used in more conventional agriculture. In warmer climates, greenhouses aren't necessary, which allows for substantial reductions in the costs to set the projects up. 

The vision to start a non profit to support aquaponics projects using social media came to me over the past few months when I noticed that a few organizations which are doing great work in the sustainbility and/or aquaponics field have little to no social media presence - no Twitter or Youtube accounts, no Facebook page. Other organizations do have social media accounts, but my experience in learning about social media over the past year leads me to believe that they are either underutilizing their social media accounts or in some cases using them in ways which are not particularly effective. 

This is not just the case for aquaponics and sustainability in particular, but seems rather to be a common theme for many businesses, industries, individuals and topics. Since I feel that aquaponics has the potential to make a huge ecological difference to the planet, I've made the decision to help support and educate people who want to focus their energies in that particular realm. This is why I'm in the process of starting a non profit ( 99PercentMonkeys.com ) which has a vision of using social media to help fundraise for, promote and share knowledge for individuals and organizations who want to start aquaponics projects in their local area. The first project in each area is likely to be the most expensive one to start up; ones which follow it can learn from mistakes made in the original project and through a "pay it forward" network can reduce start up costs for fish, plants and other items. As more projects come online, there will be more models for people to learn from in climates similar to their own, which will help reduce costs and mistakes as well.

The non profit will aim to identify and support various fundraising models for aquaponics projects including kickstarter.com or indiegogo.com campaigns, microloans through kiva.org or other similar organizations, subscription model community supported agriculture, potential grant funding research, direct funding of projects through donations or income from the non profit, etc. The non profit will help support projects through promotion of their fundraising efforts, promotion of their videos, pictures, etc., sharing information, teaching the people involved in projects how to use social media more effectively, etc. Aquaponics projects which agree to help support the development of future projects in their area will receive first priority in financial and other assistance from the non profit.

The non profit will also seek to collaborate, network and find crowdsourcing solutions with other like minded groups, individuals and organizations. Time banks and sparked.com are just a few among many great sites which we intend to use to help build and support local and global aquaponics projects. Several of us are starting a new weekly chat on Twitter using the hashtag #sustainchat for people who are interested in connecting, networking and sharing information regarding sustainability. 

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