Hydroponic cultivation isn't new. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, dating to the 6th century B.C., may be a precursor to today’s hydroponics if they existed. (Historians disagree on that as well as where the gardens were.) Then, as now, technology is a key to giving growers, not Mother Nature, more control over production.
As different as hydroponics growing systems are, most have this in common: The plants thrive because of the nutrients they receive and the consistency of the environment and can produce crops of fresh leafy greens and other vegetables, various herbs and sometimes fruits.
Such controlled-environment agriculture is part of the larger trend of urban farms, recognized last year by the May opening of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. The farms’ proximity to larger markets means produce can be delivered quickly to consumers, whether they’re grocery shoppers, airline passengers, students or communities in need or restaurants, an industry that has been devastated in the last year.
Today’s micro-and mega-farms have taken on increased importance, partly because of world hunger, which will increase as the population grows. Add increasing urbanization that is gobbling available agricultural land in many countries, mix in climate change and the scramble for water to grow crops, as much as 70% of the world’s water is used for agriculture and the planet may be at a tipping point.
No single change in the approach to feeding the world will shift the balance by itself. Hydroponic farming is “a solution,” said Alexander Olesen, a cofounder of Babylon Microfarms in Virginia, which uses its small growing units to help corporate cafeterias, senior living centers, hotels and resorts provide fresh produce, “but they are not the solution.”
Read more at the LA Times (C. Hamm)