Hydroponic Octopus Farming? My UIUC Student’s Project

I teach an undergraduate course in our Campus Honors Program. Today, I had coffee with a sophomore from a farm in southern Illinois.

He’s the team leader for a UIUC agricultural marketing project that is looking into hydroponic octopi farming.

Some background: A UIUC team of professors and students in the 1980s helped to develop hydroponic tilapia. 

For mature blog readers, you might recall that tilapia was not on the regular menu back in the 1980s. 

Most of our tilapia are “farmed.” They are grown hydroponically. The waste from the fish is circulated as fertilizer nearby for hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce. It’s sustainable, profitable, and doable on a small piece of land.

My student and his team have discovered that demand for octopi has grown by over 600% since 1990. Supply has become a problem. The biggest octopus fishery in the world has collapsed.

Showing my ignorance, I volunteered: “I assume that is China.”

“No, professor, the largest octopi fishery was off the coasts of Morocco and Spain.”

It turns out that octopus is not only an Asian food—it is a staple in several Mediterranean diets. 

The photo shows a Spanish octopus dish.

My student says that a profitable octopus farm can be put on a one-acre plot of land, right here in Illinois (or anywhere else with good water supply). Waste runoff? Negligible. Put your farm 40 miles from Chicago, St. Louis, or Indy and you've got good markets for your product.
Like tilapia, octopus farming can be integrated with hydroponic vegetable farming.

Here’s wishing the UIUC Ag Marketing Team great success in national competition. We’re all winners when our students are pushing the boundaries of innovation.
PS: Check out this nutrition profile for a 3 ounce serving of octopus (high in Vitamin A, B12, Phosphorus, Selenium, and Niacin):

Nutrition Facts
For a Serving Size of 3 oz (85g)
Calories 139.4 Calories from Fat 15.9 (11.4%)
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 1.8g -
Saturated fat 0.4g -
Monounsaturated fat 0.3g -
Polyunsaturated fat 0.4g -
Cholesterol 81.6mg -
Sodium 391mg 17%
Potassium 535.5 mg -
Carbohydrates 3.7g -
Net carbs 3.7g -
Sugar 0g -
Fiber 0g 0%
Protein 25.3g
Vitamins and minerals
Vitamin A 76.5μg 9%
Vitamin A IU 255IU -
Vitamin B6 0.6mg 43%
Vitamin B12 30.6μg 1275%
Vitamin C 6.8mg 12%
Vitamin D 0μg 0%
Vitamin D IU 0IU -
Vitamin D3 0μg -
Vitamin E 1mg 6%
Vitamin K 0.1μg 1%
Caffeine 0mg -
Calcium 90.1mg 10%
Iron 8.1mg 102%
Magnesium 51mg 15%
Phosphorus 237.2mg 24%
Zinc 2.9mg 20%
Copper 0.6mg 32%
Manganese 0mg 2%
Selenium 76.2μg 109%
Retinol 76.5μg -
Lycopene 0μg -
Thiamine 0mg 4%
Riboflavin 0.1mg 4%
Niacin 3.2mg 17%
Folate 20.4μg 6%
Choline 68.9mg 13%
Water 51.4g -
Fatty acids
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) 0.1g -
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 0.1g -
Docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) 0g -
Total Omega 3 0.3g -
Amino acids
Tryptophan 0.3g -
Threonine 1.1g -
Isoleucine 1.1g -
Leucine 1.8g -
Lysine 1.9g -
Methionine 0.6g -
Cystine 0.3g -
Phenylalanine 0.9g -
Tyrosine 0.8g -
Valine 1.1g -
Arginine 1.8g -
Histidine 0.5g -
Alanine 1.5g -
Aspartic acid 2.4g -
Glutamic acid 3.4g -
Glycine 1.6g -
Proline 1g -
Serine 1.1g -

* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs.