Joy Yu-Rong Liu

Joy Yu-Rong Liu is a graduate student of aquaculture and aquaponics in the Department of Environmental Science. Focusing on aquaculture’s environmental and socio-cultural sustainability, Joy aims to develop methods and solutions for the wider aquaculture and aquaponics communities and industries worldwide, especially in arid regions. Through interviews and participant observation with home, backyard, and commercial aquaponics and hydroponics producers, traders, and consumers in southern Arizona, Joy’s work will establish a baseline understanding of the community conception of aquaponics and fish as food in the local food system and evaluate the role and accessibility of traditional food among indigenous and Hispanic groups to determine how aquaponics could be integrated into the local food system to improve community health. The CRFS research award helped to reduce the cost of traveling in southern

Arizona by car and expenses associated with interview arrangements during the summer of 2024 to pursue this research.