Hydroponics - Commercial Food Production

 

Due to rising awareness of chemicals and other contaminants in the food supply, people are looking for more wholesome and safer alternatives. Fortunately, hydroponics is the exact fit for the consumer's new requirements.

Some commercial installations use no pesticides or herbicides, preferring Integrated Pest Management Techniques. There is often a price premium willingly paid by consumers for produce which is labeled "Organic". This means that lawyers and lobbyists are paid to establish rules and laws determining exactly who can charge consumers more and which produce can be legally sold with the label "Organic". Some States in the USA require soil as a "sine qua non" to obtain Organic Certification. There are also overlapping and somewhat contradictory rules established by the Federal Government. So some food grown with hydroponics can be certified organic. In fact, they are the cleanest plants possible because there is no environment variable and the dirt in the food supply is extremely limited.

Hydroponics also saves an incredible amount of water; It uses as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. The water table can be impacted by the water use and run-off of chemicals from farms, but hydroponics may minimize impact as well as having the advantage that water use and water returns are easier to measure. This can save the farmer money by allowing reduced water use and the ability to measure consequences to the land around a farm.

The environment in a hydroponics greenhouse is tightly controlled for maximum efficiency and this new mindset is called Soil-less/Controlled Environment Agriculture (S/CEA). With this growers can make ultra-premium foods anywhere in the world, regardless of temperature and growing seasons. Growers monitor the temperature, humidity, and pH level constantly. In an era of farm globalization where each successive year thousands of farms are closed down worldwide due to excess capacity, only the most efficient farms will be passed down to generations in the 22nd century.



source : hydroponic