Hydroponics is a form of advanced farming that requires human
input for plants to grow in an artificial environment. Developed during
the space age for interstellar travel, it is becoming more and more useful to
us as a way of decreasing the overall waste of land resources with respect to
certain forms of farming. Let's discuss what this form of farming does
better than the regular variety.
Advantages:
1) Needs no pesticides or diseases:
In this enclosed environment there is no bugs that could eat the plants
which means no need for chemicals that could harm the plants or us the people
who will eat them. Hence there is also no need to fear diseases that
would kill plants as they are isolated from the outside world.
2) Controlled sunlight: Each plant
grows better at different times of the day and with different light spectrums.
As such, each one can be varied per plant type to enhance growth.
In addition, using lights that do not produce heat like LED's means that
plants can be grown closer together, but using light intensity can cause the
plant being grown to become softer or crisper as it grows.
3) Cutting out the pollinators: Here we do
not need bees or other animals to pollinate plants as robots and people do the
job. This thus eliminates the possibility of these plants not reaching
maturity.
4) Year round growth: Plants in a hydroponics garden can
have year round growth. So no worries about particular seasons to grow
food in or even the weather outside. Temperature controls keep plants in
optimal growing conditions.
5) Nutrient rich water/soil: Unlike
traditional farming outside where water and nutrients for plants can be wasted,
here it all can be monitored and reused. So the water will be pumped in
with a robot measuring the nutrients needed for each plant to grow. Then
the robot can add additional nutrients to accommodate the plants needs for
growth without human input. Extra water can then be sent back to the beginning
from where it was pumped in and then reused again and again.
6) Larger crop yields: Hydroponics
are only limited by the size of the facility. With this form of farming
more crops can be grown to feed growing populations all year round with maximum
efficiency. This eliminates the need to transport them as goods from the
countryside to the city. Thus it saves costs on a large scale as farmers
main costs become their electric bills. This also improves the working
conditions for farmers and their workers as these crops can be harvested rain
or shine and have the major grunt work handled by robots if more back breaking
work is required.
Disadvantages: I only know of one key disadvantage
(not counting the fact that even plants need to sleep for a specified period of
time) and that is humanity. In the case of this form of farming, we may
cause these plants to evolve into plant species that are dependent on humanity
to survive and only in these types of facilities. For instance, if you
look at the origin of corn, it was small and bite sized. Through man’s
intervention and selective breeding, we created the corn we know and love to
eat today. So this manipulation can backfire and hence, if we become too
reliant on technology to grow our food, we may suffer if the power goes out for
an extended period of time.
Conclusion: This form of farming is excellent
at providing food for a city and other large urban populations as they can grow
food right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of a city. Probably
the only main disadvantage is that not all plants can grow in a hydroponics
garden like corn and certain grains (let alone fruit grown on trees).
This leaves them to the rural farms to provide, but I have no doubt that
hydroponics gardening could eventually figure out a solution and all our food
can grow in them. Thus, food crises may become a thing of the past.
One can only hope.
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