DP: Food Self-Sufficiency & Hydroponics

Garden Produce

There are different methods and levels of self-sufficient agriculture being done. By self-sufficient agriculture I mean people that grow their own food supplies partially or completely. It is important to say that complete food self-sufficiency on a house hold level is difficult and a very demanding lifestyle although it is not impossible it means more commitment. I will be talking mostly on the technologies that are actually available and will focus mainly on community level self sufficiency.

Extensive Agriculture

Why is food self-sufficiency important? Well the answer is simple if a community or country is not able to satisfy their food necessity this means they rely on food markets and as we know food markets are not particularly stable. This means relaying on food markets threatens a country’s food security. Another factor is that the extensive agrarian industry cares nothing for the good use of land and doesn’t discriminate on the use of chemicals. Leading to all kinds of contraproducent agrarian practices for which society pays the last toll; such as bad water usage, heavy fertilization, pesticide use, monocultures, ecosystem destruction, and the use of genetically modified crops.

Small Permaculture Garden

Actually apart from traditional methods of agriculture we have a few new technologies and methods of producing vegetable food. We have organic farming which eliminates the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that flood our foods with all sorts of chemicals and cancerigenus agents. This type of agriculture can take a step further and turn into permaculture farming in which you diversify crops in order to create a perfectly balanced ecosystems while producing food (a lot of the know-how of this method is based on ancient wisdom from natives). The main technology currently available would be hydroponics which consists in cultivating in a soilless medium with the use of mainly synthesized salts and minerals that are used as nutrients mixed with water (water with organic waste can be used as well).

School Kids Learning Hydroponics

I believe hydroponics can play a major role around the world in gaining food independence from food markets in developing countries. This type of system needs less space than common agrarian practices to produce a much higher yield, it doesn’t erode, deplete or transform the soil’s characteristics, can be applied virtually in any part of the world (Israel is a main user of this technology they figured out how to use salty water for hydroponic irrigation/it also can be used in major cities on rooftops or windows), there is a wide variety of mediums depending on what is available in the region (clay pellets, rock wool, coco peat, sand, wood fiber, among others), water usage is the most efficient in agriculture since it is collected after irrigation and re-used (this is important in water scarce regions/deserts). It is also an opportunity for small entrepreneurs to emerge (people empowerment), it doesn’t demand as much work as traditional agriculture, it is a process of constant learning to improve yields, pest control and diseases are easier to control (crops are not in contact with soil), and no pesticides are used.

Window Farming

Hydroponic agriculture can be applied anywhere this means creating local agriculture in any part of the world. This gives a chance for local entrepreneurs to emerge in developed or developing countries there for creating job opportunities. In developing countries it will give them food independence and in developed countries it will give them the opportunity to bring agriculture back to big cities this is important because as Schumacher said one of the goals of agriculture apart from food production is “to keep man in touch with living nature, of which he is and remains a highly vulnerable part”; I cannot stop thinking we have long forgotten this in big cities.

If you want too see a prototype urban farm take a look at this video: Urban Farming

References:

E.F.Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (1973)

http://www.umass.edu/umext/jgerber/agric.htm

http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/10/feeding-seven-billion-people-farm-tech-revolution/

http://ag.arizona.edu/hydroponictomatoes/timeline.htm

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