Soilless growing offers a viable alternative to growing crops in a low-risk environment for many microbial sources. Aquaponics, which is often greenhouse-grown, is an innovative way of growing fish and plants in rural or urban settings. For years, commercial aquaponic farms have obtained food safety certifications from Global GAP, USDA Harmonized GAP, Primus GFS, and the SWF Food Safety Program, in addition to being certified USDA organic (Aquaponic Association, 2019) and sold commercially across North America.
In an aquaponic system, the healthy microbes actually serve as biological control agents against pathogenic bacteria making their survival minimal (Fox, 2012). While aquaponics produce is not immune to all pathogenic contamination, it is one of the safest agriculture methods against pathogenic risk.
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