Aquaponics offers improvements over traditional soil based farming which often requires extensive water, pesticides, fertilizer, tilling, weeding and eventually results in fallow soils and creates harmful byproducts from chemicals and wastewater. It overcomes the issues of hard clay, sand or contaminated soils as well. Additionally, vegetables, herbs and fruits that are mass produced in this way come from seeds and plants engineered for rough handling, disease resistance and long shelf life.