Written by

Aaron Vansintjan

Urban Fish Ponds: Low-tech Sewage Treatment for Towns and Cities

In the mid 20th century, whole cities’ sewage systems safely and successfully used fish to treat and purify their water. Waste-fed fish ponds are a low-tech, cheap, and sustainable alternative to deal with our own shit – and to obtain high protein food in the process.

March 28, 2021

The Messy World of Fermentation

When modernity meets its end-point and creates a world where everything is sterile, controlled, and known, there will be little space for fermentation.

July 25, 2018

Vietnam's Low-tech Food System Takes Advantage of Decay

Vietnam’s decentralised food system has low energy inputs and reduced food waste, giving us a glimpse of what an alternative food system might look like

February 20, 2017

Pigeon Towers: A Low-tech Alternative to Synthetic Fertilizers

Pigeon towers helped Persian farmers cultivate all kinds of crops on previously arid, thin-soil land.

October 25, 2016

Garum: Fermented Fish Sauce for the Ancient Roman Masses

Fish fermentation allowed the ancient Romans to store their fish surplus for long periods, in a time when there were no freezers and fishing was bound to fish migratory patterns.

October 13, 2015

Water Johads: A Low-Tech Alternative to Mega-Dams in India

Before the British arrived, people on the subcontinent used traditional low-cost, low-tech engineering to collect rainwater for thousands of years.

June 17, 2015