Consumption of irrigated water actually plummets with aquaponics (article cites 90% less water use), and, depending on the system, may not even need any fertilizer at all since the fish manure is circulated. You still have to feed the fish, true, but often that is supplemented with byproducts of the final produce production and is not as environmentally damaging as artificially produced nitrogen fertilizers (agriculture standard) anyways.<p>So, quite frankly, your statement that the efficient distribution of water is fertilizer is more is just wrong.<p>I&#x27;m not saying the tech is perfect or that it can&#x27;t improve, but if even a fraction of the research dollars were put into this as is put into traditional&#x2F;industrial research and development, I think aquaponics (especially when designed vertically) will outpace it easily.<p>I will note that this isn&#x27;t true for many staple crops like corn, soy, or wheat. But that&#x27;s not the point. You would need to compare specialty crop production, not commodity crop production.