There's good points and bad points to the film. Some mixed systems would work better than others. Depends on lots of things, like local markets. When it was looking like I might end up in Newfoundland, I started thinking about what I could do if I moved there. Ended up deciding on small business, an aquaponics business. The types of crops I could grow in the greenhouse essentially left me with something in a value chain at each step, from fish and produce, down to mushrooms and fertilizers for garden centers. In that case it would have worked really well, there is not much of a growing season in Newfoundland. Fresh produce without the cost of shipping long distances? The economics are nice, and as a plus, I have all the technical know-how from school. Even started building the business plan. But circumstances changed...I still think about it from time to time.
For other systems, like cows? It's really inefficient comparably, and that's OK so long as everyone in your area is willing to pay a lot more for food. It's a niche market, there's a very good reason that it's a niche and not mainstream.