About Akari Farms
Growing food.
Growing light.
My name is Anthony Tanaka. I'm a fourth-generation Japanese-American living in Southern California, and Akari Farms is the thing I'm building so my daughters can grow up knowing where their food comes from — and understanding why that matters.
In Japanese, 明かり describes the particular quality of light that comes from a source — candlelight, lantern light, morning light breaking through. Not just brightness, but warmth. That's what I want growing food to do for our community: not just nourish, but illuminate something about where we come from and what we're capable of.
Four generations
Yonsei means fourth generation. My great-grandparents came from Japan to California to farm — to work the land, grow food, build something that would outlast them. That connection to agriculture runs through my family like water through a system: quietly, constantly, feeding everything above it.
That history isn't distant to me. It lives in the food I grew up eating — shiso, shungiku, water spinach, garland chrysanthemum — vegetables that were never on the shelves at the grocery store near our house, but were always at my grandparents' table. Growing them aquaponically is a way of keeping that alive.
What we grow
The focus is on Asian herbs and vegetables that matter to our community and are almost impossible to find fresh locally: shiso, shungiku, Thai basil, water spinach, bok choy, Vietnamese coriander, lemongrass. These aren't exotic specialty crops — they're the everyday vegetables of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai kitchens that happen to be nearly absent from Western grocery shelves.
We grow aquaponically — combining fish culture and soilless plant production in a closed-loop system that uses up to 90% less water than conventional farming. No pesticides. No synthetic fertilizer. The fish feed the plants. The plants clean the water. Nothing is wasted.
Why a free design tool
When I was planning my own system, I couldn't find a tool that let me visualize what I was designing before building it. Everything was either a paid software subscription or a hand-drawn sketch. So I built one.
The Aquaponics Studio Builder is free because aquaponics should be accessible to anyone who wants to grow their own food — not just people who can afford expensive planning tools. Drag and drop components, see your pipe routing, get a parts list with real prices.
What we believe
Get in touch
If you're interested in workshops, community partnerships, rare plant cuttings, or just want to talk aquaponics — reach out. We're a small operation and we respond to every message.