On a sunny weekday morning, with a half-dozen Buffalo police cars, lights flashing,

answering a call just a few blocks away, Jesse Meeder walked around his West Side greenhouse,

talking anxiously about his first-ever harvest.

The young urban farmer, seemingly oblivious to the cops down the street, pointed proudly to

his watercress, parsley and basil — and the 2,000 tilapia swimming around inside.

Fresh fish being raised in Buffalo's inner city?

"My dream is to have several greenhouses," said Meeder, a self-taught fish farmer. "Of

course, the ultimate goal is to change the food system and to show people: "This is something

you can do.' "

Ambitious goals for a lot of groups but not at the Massachusetts Avenue Project, where

locally produced food that's both healthy and affordable is at the heart of its West Side

mission.

It's a mission that will grow dramatically next month when the organization breaks ground

on a greenhouse big enough to raise and harvest 30,000 fish a year.

And not just tilapia. The plan is to introduce catfish and yellow perch to the menu of

products being offered to local restaurants and neighborhood residents, many of them

low-income families with little access to healthy food.

"We're definitely here because of those issues," Meeder said of the crime and poverty

around him. "It's a great neighborhood — there are 30 different languages spoken here

— and we want to invest in it and make it better."

The first formal pitch for customers will come next month when Growing Green, MAP's urban

agriculture and youth development arm, invites local chefs and restaurant owners to a taste

test of sorts.

"We have a very good local market," said Markets Manager Zoe Hollomon. "And that's because

our fish are about as fresh as you can get. Straight from the West Side."

The hope is that with the larger greenhouse, MAP can harvest year-round, selling hundreds

of fish each week. The fish will be sold live as a way to avoid the licensing and inspections

that come with processing.

The price tag for the 10-inch, pound to pound-and-a-half wonders will be about $5 each,

enough to help turn the greenhouse into a profit-making venture.

"You can't really call yourself an urban farmer unless you're making money," said Meeder.

"Otherwise, you're just a gardener."

Meeder, of course, is much more than a gardener.

Born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, he got his degree in English and creative writing

from Gordon College in Massachusetts. But his passions have always included gardening and

marine biology.

"As a kid growing up," Meeder said, "we lived in the country and grew all of our own fruits

and vegetables."

Before he landed at MAP, Meeder worked in the Boston, Mass., area as a gardener, teacher

and youth leader, all roles he continues today.

As Growing Green's farm education coordinator, he uses the urban farm as a tool to teach at-

risk young people the ins and outs of urban agriculture. Along the way, he provides them

employment and leadership training.

To date, more than 300 youth, ages 12 to 18, have gone through the program.

"Food is just the vehicle," said Diane Picard, MAP's executive director. "The goal is to

give them real-world skills."

The folks at MAP call Meeder "the mad scientist," and judging by the operation he built,

it's easy to see why.

Walk inside the adobe and straw bale greenhouse in the heart of Massachusetts Avenue and

you'll find Meeder's pride and joy — a self-made "aquaponics" system that 2,000 tilapia

now call home.

At first glance, the tanks, bathtubs and piping look primitive and haphazard, like

something out of a high school do-it-yourself kit.

The reality is that Meeder has created a unique environment that eliminates solid waste,

conserves and recycles water and provides for the organic fertilization of plants.

And the result is an environmental footprint much smaller than what commercial fish farms

produce.

"Our food system is the No. 1 generator of greenhouse gases," said Hollomon. "So we think

this is very important work."

Here's how Meeder's system works:

The tilapia, which come from a fishery at Cobleskill State College, are raised in a large

2,000-gallon tank that stretches from one end of the greenhouse to the other.

To help them grow, Meeder feeds them duckweed, lettuce and spinach, all grown inside the

greenhouse. The byproduct, of course, is fish waste. No problem, right? Just toss the waste

out.

No, says Meeder, who instead removes the nutrient-rich waste from the fish tank and pipes

it into a second tank containing watercress, parsley and other plants.

The plants take in the nutrients, and the water, now removed of its toxicity, is then piped

back into the fish tank.

This self-sustaining, waste-free cycle is repeated over and over again. And when new water

is needed, Meeder doesn't go to the faucet. He relies instead on rainwater from a 1,000-gallon

rain barrel.

One of the inspirations for MAP's fish farm can be found at Growing Power in Milwaukee. The

nonprofit group has operated an urban farm since 1999 and seen it grow to the size of a small

supermarket.

"Growing Power was one of the first," said Picard. "We've been out there four or five

times, and we've even sent some of our kids there."

The farm includes six greenhouses growing a wide variety of herbs, plants and vegetables,

as well as tilapia and perch. On top of that, there are five beehives, three houses with hens

and ducks, and several outdoor pens with goats, rabbits and turkeys.

It also includes a small retail store that sells the produce and meat the farm generates

year around.

"They are really the model for local food service development, and not in an elitist way,"

Meeder said. "They're really committed to providing food to the people that need it most."