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.

 

   

Hmmmm I think.  What do I know about hydroponics?

 

We drive over and meet Farmer John,
big John.

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

 

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

 

 

 

They look lovely.

 

But still, they are being grown in chemical water.

 

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

    

So he’s doing the pick your own.

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.

 

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.

Definitely looks good.  Tastes good too.

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’ …………