Hydroponic VS Organic which is better for the planet?

Question

In this day and age of farmlands taking up mass amounts of land for farms/development i really don't see how Organic farming is better then Hydroponics...with Hydroponics you can have the food you want quicker, healthier, and fresher with crop yeild never fearing from outside conditions.

http://www.modernsage.com/Expert/ArticleDetails.aspx?Article_Id=464

After reading that article i feel that Organic farming isn't going to help the earth out as much. Whats your opinions on the matter? What is better for us and the planet hydroponics or organics? Please do some research on the subject before answering.

Answer 1

It's all about taste. Compare a hydroponic tomato to an organic one. That natural, fresh, and rich tasting organic tomato will blow your socks off compared to the hydroponic one, which is somehow lifeless in comparison.

Answer 2

I think it is not only the matter of taste. More importantly, it wil be a question of quantity. Can a hydroponic farm supply as much or even more than an organic farm? With the continuously burgeoning population, the pressing need is to produce more at less cost, to feed more people. Any weather disturbances destroying crops, organic, hydroponic, or the traditional farming,  everybody suffers - scarcity and higher prices.

Answer 3

TRUE organics are better.  I'm not talking about the mass produced "organics" you see in the grocery store.  

I'm talking about the smaller farmer produced organics, who also keep livestock.

Everything needs to be returned to the soil, just as it is in nature, otherwise you are stripping the soil every time you harvest.

On our farm, even the animals the die are returned to the soil.  We are able to compost them, and return all of the minerals and neutriants from them (especially their bones) back to the soil.  The microbial life that this supports is simply staggering.

The trace minerals found in the produce of true organics is beyond compare.  

This simply cannot be reproduced with hydroponics.  Yes, some trace minerals can be added, but for the most part they are largely left out.  The best hydroponics would be ones that incorperate fish into the system.  So the manure from the fish is helping to fertilize and feed the plants.

The big bonus to hydropnoics is an extended growing season, even all winter in milder climates.  In the long run, it does not make sence to heat hydroponic greenhouses with fossil fuels.  Yes it can be done, but eventually this is going to make zero sence.  

By the way, crops should have to face insects, and grow hardy and strong, because of those attacks.  They should not be babied, and pampered...eventually this will produce very weak plants.

I would not want to stake my long term health on something completely human controlled, as most hydroponic systems are.  I wouldn't trust a hydroponic system that didn't also incorperate fish at all.  

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Answer 4

With respect to organic field production and hydroponics, each plays a role and fills a need, generally speaking. It is a vastly over simplified look at two agricultural techniques, though, comparing them as if they were the black and white of farming. They are just two of the many techniques that are employed in the production of food. Aside from the more conventional farming techniques that rely on assorted chemicals, there are also methods that are more in keeping with a longer term sustainable system of land management and food production. I had a huge interest in organic agriculture and hydroponics, when I studied at the university, as well as concepts in sustainable agriculture/ farming, aquaculture, and aquaponics. I became interested in tacking the problem of hydroponic production that was organic but NOT based on all the expensive marketed c**p that put the cost of production of foods out of the reach of the average person. Anyone can grow a tomato that, with respect to cost, is pound for pound equivalent to gold. It might even be good. But given the many disciplines, most farmers use them as an artist would use the primary colors on their pallet. Given all these colors, these tools, the farmer has a vast array of methods for their madness. The goal, the madness, is to produce a great crop, during the best time (marketing), for the best reasonable cost both in respect to the consumer as well as to the farmers profit. Consumers want as nice a quality for their "dollar" as they can find and on a regular basis. Farmers want to make that product but want to also protect their assets so that their future production is guarenteed. There really is no black and white to how they do that as they employ a stategy that works for them. I found that I could grow a great hydroponic product and borrowing from organic and sustainable disciplines did it in a way that appealed to more customers. I also managed to do so in a way that relied upon simple inputs that were cost effective and made for a long term stable and sustainable project. The products that I turned out were quality and as flavorful as anything your organic garden could produce, not the sometimes bland hydroponics that one runs into at the supermarket that are overpriced and not very competitive. One other consideration would be that farms where field crops are grown have more than that single goal of producing food. Life on our planet is a balancing act where all the players big and small are interlocked like the pieces of a huge, globe shaped puzzle. The soils of this world regardless of where they are found, regardless of how productive they appear (they are all far more productive than the eye can discern) are the basis of all the living activity upon and within them. Forest or farm, desert sand or deep seabed, all are the meeting places that tie all life together. I suppose one can just grow food in greenhouses and let the land then go to field and forest, but why? Land, air, and water are interlocked in a very energetic way and together are the basis of the cycles of nature. The water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, everything we know is a cycle that is linked together in complex and dynamic systems. The land then can produce our food as it has for millions of years. Food crops just as easy as forest or fields will do their share to keep the cycles renewed, as long as we model our agriculture on nature (organic and/ or sustainable agriculture much more so than conventional chemical forms). Sure a stand of old growth forest may actually do a better job in some respects, but the food that feed our swelling populations come from the earth, from the soil, and do that so very well and at a reasonable cost. Hydroponics is an intensive way of control and cropping that is the icing on the cake. It is just another discipline that allows us food, but it will never be the only way we get it. It was originally a tool in laboratory studies where plants and their growth/ production were studied in detail. It is now an industry standard, a management stategy for production. As with organic production of agricultural products, it is a tool and not a solution. It doen't always address the sustainability of the land that produces the organic crop. With that in mind, sustainable agriculture doesn't always keep with the theme of organic agriculture. They are all tools in the box the farmer can choose from. The more tools one has to rely on, the better one can do the job, and in this the job also is more than feeding good food to the planet, it is the care of the resources that are the planet.