Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Hydroponics or not?

Monday January 30, 2012
Near Tampa Florida

 

It’s spring time here in Florida.
Where are the local Fresh Veggies??

We check with the Ranger station to find out
where to get local produce. 
He says talk to John just a couple of miles away. 
He has a hydroponic farm.

 

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Hmmmm I think.  What do I know about hydroponics?

 

We drive over and meet Farmer John,
big John.

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Is he a good ad for his vegetables?
Or not?

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A lot of fruits and vegetables are being grown in a very small area.

 

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They look lovely.


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But still, they are being grown in chemical water.


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I am content to look around and leave

but David is in a buying mood
He’s not as particular about the food he eats
as I am

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So he’s doing the pick your own.

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He proclaims it all lovely.


Give me the one with worm holes personally. 
If the worm will eat it, so can I.

I did really like this sign though and in my
former life when we produced about 80% of
our food organically. would have loved to have
it hanging on our old barn.

 

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Or maybe better in our situation at that time
Danger Woman Gardening  J

 

We take some of the veggies he picked and
have kabobs for dinner.

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Definitely looks good.  Tastes good too.


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I don’t expect to have any negative results
from this one shopping episode

but I have since researched the  question of hydroponics
for myself and, at least for now,
am satisfied that I don’t want to eat them. 

I read of numerous studies
that show eating organic vegetables
– grown naturally in soil,
without chemical fertilizers and without pesticides –
boosts the immune system of animals
and helps them recover from disease.

 

It was found that bacteria and fungi in the soil
passed their immune factors to the vegetables,
which, in turn, passed them on to the animals that ate them.
I consider myself just another animal.
I want those immune factors too.

 

We literally are what we eat.

Hydroponic vegetables are grown in a totally unnatural way,
without soil, in a solution of chemical nutrients. 
I can’t see how these chemicals do not become part
of the plant I eat and then 
part of me.

 

Additionally, the seeds of hydroponic vegetables, I understand,
cannot be used to plant beyond the next one or two generations of crops. Hydroponic vegetables are, therefore, relatively infertile.

 

Research has found there to be a big difference
between vegetables grown in soil using chemical fertilizers
and those grown in soil using natural fertilizers
such as manure and compost.
Seems logical to suspect an even bigger difference
when vegetables are grown without soil in only chemical fertilizers.

 

I also learned that as of 2011,
there are no broad-based nutritional studies on hydroponic vegetables, nor studies about their long-term health effects.

 

However, recent nutritional discoveries about phytonutrients
strongly suggest that hydroponic vegetables
have much lower content of phytonutrients
compared to organic vegetables.

 

Didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes here.

I’m just sayin’ …………

13 comments:

  1. Interesting info. I have never given it much thought. However, in our limited gardening experience in Florida I found that sometimes things tasted bad - squash and spinach especially. Never figured out why. Despite the great weather I found it really difficult to grow stuff in Florida.

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  2. Hydroponic or not, the zucchini looks fantastic!

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  3. Hub and I are organic vegans. We have a hydroponic set up in our
    greenhouse, but we use soil in our hydroponics and only use organic fertilizers. Our tomatoes and greens are tasty. My concern has been how we are going to be able to maintain an organic, vegan lifestyle when we get on the road.

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  4. Thanks for the research. Interesting how we mess with Mother Nature... she really does know what she is doing... We should just leave her alone ;o))

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  5. I'm with Nancy. We shouldn't mess with Mother Nature. That said, I tend to buy vegetables based mostly on looks. I know...bad. But, if they don't look good to me, I won't eat them. So, I guess, pretty vegetables are better than no vegetables :)

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  6. Wow - lots of research on your part! Never did get a chance to pop by that farm stand!

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  7. I'm staying away from those hypochondriac vegetables, too. With my luck, I'd eat some and wake up one morning to find a new foot growing out of my head!

    I'm sticking to safe foods like Twinkies and canned spaghetti.

    Life's too short to take chances! ;c)

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  8. Never heard of a hydroponic farm. Thanks for the info. Makes you think twice.

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  9. Hydroponics have their role and in a future where water becomes scarcer and lands being to become deserts I imagine most of us will be eating hydroponic veggies... but for now I will stick to the ones grown in mud...

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  10. Excellent information about hydroponic farms. Thanks for giving us food for thought...haha :-) I'm much more aware of things like that now that my sister has had breast cancer twice. She only eats organic as much as possible. I try to not use plastic containers when reheating and cooking in the microwave and transfer meals to regular plates. We are absorbing all kinds of chemicals daily, I'm sure. Might as well try to minimize that!

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  11. Very informational - growing in chemicals would make me raise an eyebrow - organic in the soil for me please!

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  12. I am a consumer and distributor of the Juice Plus Tower Garden and I would like to share the fact with you that the the mineral solution used is an all natural earth based mineral solution blend of natural plant nutrients. I recommend that anyone growing and/or consuming aeroponic grown food to carefully consider their solution used to grow said food.

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  13. The term 'hydroponic' only refers to the fact that the plant is not grown directly in soil. What is fed to the plant and what kind of seeds are used (GMO or organic) is not part of the term 'hydroponic', so please be careful when shooting down hydroponics as a whole. You can in fact grow plants without soil and still use 100% organic nutrients and organic seeds, giving you even healthier produce than soil grown plants due to the fact that the organic nutrients have more of the good stuff in it than soil that is not given extra nutrients every week.
    That said I will only eat plants that I grow myself in my organic hydroponic system due to the fact that 90% of hydroponic systems use non organic nutrients which I am also against. So please for all of you who are concerned about what you eat, look into a organic hydroponic system and start your own one today, it is really fun and exciting to grow food yourself!

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