Water, Light, Seeds, Nutrients… Skip the Soil!
By Nida Khan, Montgomery College
Imagine strawberries grown right here in Montgomery County during the middle of winter. That’s one of the benefits that hydroponics brings to the table, literally and figuratively. Hydroponics is a method of food production where plants are grown without soil. It relies on substantially less land and water usage than more traditional agricultural practices (Bartok, Jr., 2015), which could be very beneficial for an increasingly urbanized place like Bethesda. With new developments and population growth, less local land is available to cultivate and a new threshold of demand for food must be met. Hydroponics could offer a sustainable way to do so. By producing food through systems that deliver nutrients to the crops via a recirculating water (Leahy, 2017), not only will it fit in a modern space but also conserve water. There is also more control over the growing conditions, so seasons would no longer influence which crops are grown and yields could be increased (Bartok, Jr., 2015). Fresh produce year round isn’t the only benefit. Locally grown produce not only reduces pollution caused by long distance transport (Cho, 2012), but also supports the community in which it was grown. All in all, farms such as these may prove to be valuable components to Montgomery County’s agricultural industry.
In the last 20 twenty years, Bethesda’s population has increased exponentially. This has brought with it vast amounts of land development to service this increase. Housing aside, another service required by a growing population is food. Though we have large grocery chains aplenty nearby as well as the blessed agricultural reserve, hydroponics could be a useful addition to this collection and offset some of the problems in these two sectors while also bringing about its own benefits. For grocery stores, the incredible variety of produce provided is due to the fact that they source their stock from all over. For regular food items, the average distance traveled seems to be 1,500 miles(Cho, 2012), and even more so for more exotic ones. From when the food is collected, processed, sent to a distributor’s warehouse (Moorhead, 2015) and then sent to your local branch, not only would produce not be as fresh but there had been extraneous amounts of fossil fuels used. However, nearby farms alone currently can not function at the necessary threshold in order to meet such a large demand. Place like Montgomery County’s agricultural reserve, while substantial contributors, have a limited amount of space to utilize as well as the other concerns that come with running a viable business. Though our food system is a large and complex issue, a part of the solution could be hydroponics. For the issue of locally grown food, hydroponic facilities can be built in and around a cityscape without relying on the soil to influence what to cultivate. There are, however, limits on what produce is reasonable to grow via hydroponics. Crops like corn and such would require much more space and electricity to grow than foods such as microgreens, which are suited to hydroponics because of their small size and small light requirements (Leahy, 2017). Hydroponic farms could work to benefit the reserve by producing those crops that suit their facilities, which would enable the farms in the reserve to focus on larger crops. There are independent benefits of hydroponics as well. When grown in a field, the majority of the water used for crops is lost to run off and evaporation (Leahy, 2017), which would be reduced greatly in a hydroponic environment. The absence of soil would help to cut greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as soil and manure management create nitrous oxide emissions (Cho, 2012). It also means that it makes itself more accessible to urban areas or places dealing with soil depletion. Methods like vertical farming are also compatible with hydroponics and help increase yield in a limited space. It could be sustainable in a multifaceted way, like participating in rain-water management, using renewable energy, not using herbicides or pesticides and by providing new jobs (Leahy, 2017).
As of now, hydroponics is becoming more and more popular. In the DMV, there are a multitude of farms operating hydroponic facilities. There’s family run facilities such as Baywater Farms on the eastern shore and first generation farms like Little Wild Things City Farms in DC. There’s larger scale farms such as the BrightFarms branch in Elkwood and Gotham Greens in Baltimore. Hydroponics is also a valuable educational resource as shown by the University of the District of Columbia’s Urban Food Hubs. Buying from hydroponic producers varies depending on the scale. Some may be present at a farmers market and supply to local restaurants. Some on the larger scale, like BrightFarms, actually have an agreement with Giant Food Stores (Champion, 2015) and that’s where their produce goes. So for your participation, all you really need to do is keep an eye out for these places and enjoy fresh vegetables at dinner.
Bibliography
Leahy, C. (2017, November 1). Urban agriculture: Can it feed our cities? Food+City. https://foodandcity.org/urban-agriculture-can-feed-cities/
Bartok, Jr., J. W. (2015, March 6). Hydroponic systems [Text]. Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. https://ag.umass.edu/greenhouse-floriculture/fact-sheets/hydroponic-systems
Cho, R. (2012, September 4). How green is local food? State of the Planet. https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/09/04/how-green-is-local-food/
Moorhead, J. (2015, April 1). How your groceries get to the store: The logistics of supermarkets. Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-your-groceries-get-to-the-store-the-logistics-of-supermarkets-the-grocery-insider-217676
Champion, A. B. (2015, October 13). Big Apple-based BigFarms growing greenhouses in Culpeper. The Daily Progress. https://www.dailyprogress.com/archives/big-apple-based-bigfarms-growing-greenhouses-in-culpeper/article_937e5d4c-71aa-11e5-94ba-9f2bfd5604f7.html
