P.S. 39 harbors new school

By Timothy C. Greenleaf

The current residents of old Public School 39 have a lot in common with the children who once attended class there. They don't pay attention or listen-or even stay in their tanks. Old P.S. 39, on Longwood Avenue in the Bronx, has gone to the fishes -- it now harbors schools of bass, catfish, trout and tilapia.

For 15 years, Philson Warner has been putting to rest the myth that one simply cannot farm fish in an urban environment like the Bronx.

"These fish are not pets!" said Warner, in an accent true to his native Trinidad and Tobago. "They are to be eaten."

Warner is a Cornell University horticulture specialist in its urban extension service, a state agency. He says the small research lab he runs is both experimental and educational.

"Eventually, this will be how we will produce our food," said Warner. "I'm showing that people can take a piece of this technology and start their own business."

With halved plastic tubes and tanks filled with hundreds of gallons of gurgling water, he raises organic vegetables and fish in a system that combines hydroponics and aquaculture. Warner invented most of the technology used at the lab, and uses it to inspire visiting schoolchildren to pursue science.

"Does anyone here want to be a scientist," Warner, sporting a white lab coat, asked a group of schoolgirls who recently visited the lab. Not a single child raised her hand, so he changed his approach.

"Has anyone here played Nintendo?" he asked. This time, the youngsters were more animated. "Did you read the instructions? Probably not! You figured it out! That's what science is. You figure things out!"

Warner stacks the components vertically to make efficient use of space. The lab produces a 400-pound crop of fish twice a year. Warner said his fish grow twice as fast as those at conventional fish farms because he constantly fine-tunes their living conditions.

Using a nutrient solution without soil, Warner also raises plants hydroponically -- that is, without soil -- at "bullet speed." Each year, he harvests 16 to 20 crops of spinach, basil, oregano, celery, lettuce and many other plants. At most, conventional soil farmers harvest three crops a year, he said. Warner donates most of the lab's food to City Harvest, which distributes food to shelters.

Warner is especially proud of his recent innovation combining fish farming and hydroponics. The closed system carries fish feces from the tanks and feeds it to the plants. The plants purify the water before it returns to the tanks.

Touching the fish is not permitted, because diseases can be transmitted to the fish. But, the screens on the tops of the tanks are more to keep the fish in rather than to keep visiting young hands out. Just like kids, these fish try to get out of their schools.

"The fish do get very active at times," said John Edmunds, 73, who has volunteered at the lab for 12 years. "Sometimes they jump out and end up on the floor. Of course, they can't get back in."