Our Options (The State of Food Production, Part 2)

We left last time talking about the sad state of affairs that is our food production mechanism. Rest assured there is hope. All it takes to change the paradigm is a willingness of and collective recognition by the public that alternative methods of food production are not only feasible, but health conscious. In fact, we've done it once already.

The "Organic Movement" was a direct result of the Industrial Revolution and its reliance on synthetic soil-based agriculture. It was an initial step in the realization that we do not live on the Earth, but in the Earth ("invironmentalism, not "environmentalism"!). The result of this thinking is the Rule of Return, Integrated Pest Management (IPM's), USDA Organic standards, etc. but is ultimately insufficient for long-term food production on Earth because the focus is on the health of the soil, not the nutritional value of the end product. It should be stated that the danger of soil-based synthetic agriculture is not in the sources of fertilizer themselves, but in the weakening of the soil attributed to microorganisms inability to recognize, process, and thrive off of synthetic salts. The soil as an organism cannot survive without an influx of organic material for microorganisms so that the bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and other critters latent in good soil can make available the compounds necessary for balanced plant growth. A plant disease or pest infestation is simply an imbalance. By using salt-based fertilizers in soil the rhizosphere is weakened and in so doing inhibits the plants ability to maintain this balance and withstand natural pests and diseases resulting in significant plant stress and inordinate amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides being used on our food. To be clear, a plant does not recognize the difference between a phosphorous ion coming from an inorganic salt and one coming from an "organic" guano, for example- plants "eat" their food in the inorganic form anyway. What does recognize the difference is the soil biomass that is vital for healthy growth and balance of the ecosystem.

So what are our options? We can continue to lambaste Big Ag and hunker down with our "organic" standards in tow and watch the continual degradation of our arable land and the self destruction of our planet by synthetic soil-based agriculture or we can use our Buying Power to encourage other healthy forms of food production- namely hydroponics. The "Organic Movement" is an offshoot of the general understanding that synthetic fertilizers do not encourage the synthesis of natural systems. People came to realize that unless we harnessed and utilized nature we would lock out and mute the systems that have served to sustain us from time immemorial. What if we simply separate our food production from nature? These words may seem reckless on this piece of paper, but it turns out we've done it already.

The USDA standards adopted October 21, 2002 are a step in the right direction, but have effectively limited the options we have for producing and, more importantly, marketing healthy produce. A pigeonhole is "a specific, often oversimplified category. An instance where an action prevents further action, to put aside and ignore; to shelve." With the best intentions the USDA has done just that. By maintaining that soil-based growth remain the only viable means of producing "organic" food and ensuring the vitality of that foodstuff, our government has disenfranchised its citizens from a valuable source of nutritious food and stymied the development of an amazing and potently relevant industry regarding human sustainability- the commercial hydroponic industry.

Somehow growing plants outside of soil is equated with genetically manipulating it, or only used for "certain types of plants", or requiring a lab coat to handle the "chemicals". Remember, water is a "chemical". Why is it that we have different standards for "natural" regarding plant food and plant residency? A plant is a plant. You can't change what it eats, you can only enhance what it has to use. This is the essence of hydroponic and controlled environment agriculture. Define "natural"- "produced or existing in nature". Ask yourself this, is row upon row of tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, etc. growing side by side in your backyard garden necessarily "natural", or is it "natural" to see acre upon acre of corn or soybeans on a farm? Are you aware that corn began as a cob the size of your fingernail until it was bred into its current form by Native Americans? Potatoes took a similar route via South America. How many different types of tomatoes are there now? Are you aware that Golden Delicious apples, and all apples for that matter, were at one time single trees that have now been distributed throughout the entire world? Eating apples are grown from cuttings, not seed. Otherwise there is no way to ensure the proper taste we have come to expect. It turns out Johnny Appleseed was running booze, not fruit to the New World. So much for the sanctity of the famous childhood fable hugh? Often times the more you look into something the more you realize that its not as you thought.

Are these things necessarily "natural"? I mean have we not reached a point where we can collectively recognize that the overall efficiency of our food production mechanisms are of our own devising and under our own control? That true progress in regards to food security worldwide is due to the passive and active domestication over generations, pest control techniques such as IPM's, and harvesting techniques utilizing machines and computers? Why is it so hard to make the jump to methods of growth that augment this tremendous progress and eliminate the pesticides and wastes so as to make it even more progressive, healthy, and efficient?

Let's use our imagination for a minute. What if we could utilize skyscrapers, brownfields, and vacant warehouses for food production? What if we could grow plants underneath the water in lakes and oceans? Why not grow up and down instead of out? Imagine a 10-story building in downtown Wilmington, gutted for horticulture with an open-air market on the bottom. I bet you couldn't grow enough produce. You could even pay more to pick your food off the vine- talk about "vine-ripened"! Now imagine you utilize previously undevelopable land (there are 99 "brownfields" in Wilmington) and hire unemployed or homeless people as employees? This is no fable, it could be done tomorrow in every city in America. It comes down to overcoming the stigmas people attach to alternative methods of growing and the overwhelming capital being protected by the special interests of our current food production mechanisms. After that, it's really just a matter of doing it.

When we collectively recognize that there are other healthy methods of food production it follows that "organic" standards are not broad enough- instead of the "Organic Movement", how about the "Food Movement". Why not pay attention to the integrity of the final product rather than the method we've used to get there? Standards such as maintaining that the food cannot travel more than 100 miles from where it was grown, or ensuring that it does not take more energy to get it to your plate than the energy content of the food itself seem to be closer to the intentions of "organic" standards anyway. After all, humans are anthropocentric by nature and worried more about the health of humanity than the health of the soil to begin with. This way the integrity of the soil is never disturbed in the first place. If we couch this with the fact that hydroponic gardening offers savings of up to 1/20th the water usage via recirculatory systems, identical productions in 1/5th the total area, and a virtually endless growing season its easy to see the upside.

Hydroponics is not looking to replace soil-based growing, only to supplement it. In the end, soil-based and soilless food productions are going after the same thing anyway- no pesticides, limited waste, food security, and most importantly healthy food. If we can all manage to come together under the same tent our Buying Power will be that much more pronounced and our arrival at a sensible mechanism of food production will not be far behind. Use your Buying Power- buy local, organic, and hydroponic food and encourage those you know to do the same.