Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 1

Organically Certified, Controlled Environment Hydroponic Systems

Have the Potential to Feed the World

Rafael Cuadras

Cal Poly Pomona

June 1st 2015

Organic Agriculture

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 2

General Principles and Introduction to Hydroponic Production

Hydroponics, the soilless cultivation of crops, has revolutionized the developmental aspect of

agriculture, which for many years depended on massive amounts of land acquisition for a

steady production to feed an exponentially growing population. This innovative approach

transports nutrients through perfectly clean water along a series of interconnected channels

acting together in a recirculating system. The use of floating Styrofoam rafts with openings for

lettuce, PVC piping with cavities for basil, rotating towers of vertically growing strawberries,

coconut grown greenhouse tomatoes, and hanging habanero peppers are just some of the

current examples the industry is utilizing to transition into a hydroponic vegetable production.

(Pena 2005)

The production of hydroponic vegetables and fruits not only reduces the amount of space

necessary for the cultivation of crops but also addresses some of the environmental impacts

directly related to the pollution created by the agricultural industry. Hydroponics contributes to

the environment by allowing the producer to grow on average 7-10 times more vegetables in

the same piece of land, utilizing 80%-90% less water. (Pilloni 2014) The effects of this increased

production model make it suitable for adapting to any existing food distribution system without

contributing to the destruction of existing habitats.

The ongoing conventional use of soil-based field agriculture has long resisted change in some of

its development doctrines, proving it by the fact that their preference always lies in acquiring

more land and resources to support their current systems rather than innovating new

technologies of more efficient production in less space.

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 3

The recurring issue dealing with storm water runoff contaminating groundwater basins and

large bodies of water has followed agricultural development since the implementation of

agrichemicals during and after the Green Revolution. (Hazell 2003) Agrochemical, bio-waste

(manure) and fuel pollution are some of the most dangerous sources of contamination for our

environment, affecting human health indirectly by the inefficient and volatile profiles of our

current food systems. (Harter & Lund 2012) After all, agriculture is not a natural process, it was

orchestrated by the use of humans over the course of centuries. The intensive use of pesticides,

synthetic fertilizers that take large amounts of fuel to produce and other agrochemicals has

increased hugely since the 1960s. In the US, the amount of pesticide used has increased 26

times over the past 50 years. (Gunther 2010)

The process of growing hydroponic vegetables continues to prove its efficiency by not requiring

an increased amount of pesticides to regulate soil-borne diseases and pests. Since controlled

environment agriculture analyzes and maintains every part of the system at optimal conditions,

the presence of pests and diseases is rarely an issue. Integrated Pest Management is also widely

used in the hydroponic industry, supporting the principles of “many little hammers” instead of

“one big hammer”, which would be the way pesticides and herbicides are commonly used in

conventional agriculture. (SARE 2012)

Although the agricultural sector has been developing new drip irrigation technologies and

water percolation sensing systems, their most advanced and modern productions only cut the

loss of water by 25%, which is nothing close to hydroponics. (Arnold 2014) In other words, plant

scientists and engineers in the hydroponic industry have been extremely efficiently at

innovating technologies for decades, creating an effective drought-proof system of production

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 4

that has the ability to survive and transcend climate change. Through hydroponic systems,

water is recirculated and recycled, resulting in a minimal amount of water loss, which is mostly

due to the normal process of plant water feeding, evapotranspiration. The rate of water use is

only dictated by the natural processes of the plant. In other words, the plant only takes the

water it actually needs.

Our current drought is the third most severe to be recorded and is currently responsible for the

greatest water loss ever seen in the agricultural sector of California. All water allocations to the

Central Valley of California were reduced by one-third in 2014, costing growers a direct loss of

$1.5 billion dollars, which is 3% of the state’s total agriculture value. Community members in

these regions are also directly affected, causing them a loss of 17,100 seasonal and part-time

jobs related to agriculture.(Howitt & Lund 2014)

The great resiliency of controlled environment systems makes them able to withstand intense

weather events like severe droughts or intense floods, which in turn provide a sustainable

source of food all year round. According to economists and financial analysts, these systems are

guaranteed to be the future of food production. (Despommier 2014)

Development of a Growing Market

In 1976, students from the University of Pisa and the University of Arizona developed a method

that grew lettuce hydroponically in a floating raft of expanded plastic. This economically

feasible method grew in popularity and has been adopted by thousands of companies in

different countries, including the United States, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica, Russia,

China, Singapore, India, Saudi Arabia and many more. (Jensen 2005) The recent manufacturing

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 5

of newer and less expensive hydroponic products have reduced the financial startup cost of

investing in controlled environment agriculture. (Pena 2005)

For the past 25 years, hydroponic producers, service providers, and most importantly,

environmentally conscious consumers, have emerged all over the world forcing many large

conventional agriculture players to improve their systems of production to keep up with this

increasing demand. Some hydroponic growers have opted for an organic based nutrient line

that is approved by OMRI in accordance with the National Organic Program sponsored by the

USDA to increase the value added of their product.

Sales of organic food and non-food products broke a record in 2014, totaling $39.1 billion, an

11.3% increase since the previous year, getting now close to a 5% share of the total global

market. (Jagiello 2015) Consumers are growing concerned with their food security in terms of

health and sustainability, demanding more and safer products that directly contribute to the

ecological preservation of our planet’s ecosystem.

Many believe that this is one of the best options to preserve the resources that we currently

have in our planet for an expected jump into 10 billion people by 2050, but some even go

further to preach and implement this as the one and only alternative against fighting climatic

change and a reduction of available land to grow food. (Despommier 2014)

Fertilizing the Green Revolution

Almost no one can argue that the most ingenious innovation in the agricultural industry since

the first plant domestication techniques has been the invention of chemically-derived fertilizers

and the intensive breeding of plants that are capable of taking advantage of the increased

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 6

application of all these inputs. The success of the incorporation of these fertilizers into the

agricultural input industry caused a global event, later referred to as the Green Revolution by

the people who lived to witness what was considered the greatest innovation of human-made

fertilizers, Fritz Haber’s 1908 discovery of the “Haber Process”. This process uses extreme heat,

high pressure, and an iron catalyst to combine hydrogen coming from methane and diatomic

nitrogen coming from the atmosphere. (Cornell 2010) The production of these versions of

nitrogen readily available for fertilizers has increased consistently from 2,738,000 tons in 1960

to 12,840,000 tons in 2011. (USDAERS 2012) A high percentage of the composition of the

almost 15 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer used by agriculture last year fed our population, but

we achieved it at the expense of many environmental factors which contribute to climatic

change around the globe.

In 2014, a study demonstrated that the human manufacturing of nitrogen based fertilizers

worldwide (190 million tons per year) was now greater than the amount of nitrogen created by

natural processes (120 million tons per year). The inefficient use of nitrogen and other nutrients

in our world’s agriculture systems has caused large, unnecessary and profound consequences

that include air and water pollution but are closely followed by decimations of entire

ecosystems. The sequence of continuing events that have altered the Earth’s naturally

occurring cycles and caused various detrimental effects in human health, the air, on land, in

freshwater and marine systems, is referred to as the ‘nitrogen cascade’. One of the many

causes for overuse of nitrogen is the fertilizer subsidies imposed by state governments around

the world, which allow the grower to use these inputs in almost unlimited amounts. (Sutton et

al. 2013)

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 7

The nitrogen issue will need to be better understood to minimize expropriation of our planet’s

resources and create a global awareness of the environmental and human health consequences

of increasing nitrogen inputs and the role it plays in climate change.

The study conducted by Sutton and others in 2013 concluded that without a doubt the most

cost-effective alternative for the reduction of nitrogen use by the agricultural industry is the

implementation of better management practices when feeding crops. Many, if not all, of these

practices, align perfectly with the requirements of the National Organic Program’s “USDA

Certified Organic” label, which encourages the preservation and improvement of soil fertility for

a sustained production of food. According to the NOP, the inputs used in a certified organic

operation must be first listed in the Organic Materials Research Institute’s list for allowed

utilization by members of the program. (USDA AMS 2015)

This platform has become the stage for a global movement that encourages the preservation

and survival of our species along with our world.

Utilizing Organically Sourced Nutrients to Feed Our Systems

It is unfortunate that the decision to explore and develop the artificial and energy intensive way

to produce nitrogen fertilizers prevented the commercial manufacturing and diffusion of

organically sourced plant nutrients, but climate change has forced us to readdress the

importance of these naturally occurring inputs.

Over the course of its existence, OMRI has consistently approved a growing number of NOP

compliant sources for agricultural inputs in various parts of the world. The current goal of the

institute is to certify enough organic input producers to supply the increasing demand of

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 8

organic food production and consequently provide consumers with an ecologically-minded

product. (NMDA 2015) The premise of the program is that all of these certified sources of

inputs will have been produced adhering to strict environmental requirements along with food

safety policies and regulations. OMRI is attempting to fix our food systems by supporting

enterprises who have taken into consideration the task that was forgotten by most in 1908, to

feed the world using nothing but strictly naturally occurring beneficial processes. (OMRI 2015)

The 231 pages of OMRI listed products prove that there are palpable solutions that can heal

every aspect of inefficient agribusiness systems, from pest management to harvest tools and

packaging containers. (OMRI 2015) Correctly and strategically performed entrepreneurial

activities by key players will be the most efficient way to use the principles or organic

certification as both a catalyst and platform for shifting into a decentralized food economy, one

that can use incredibly resilient systems to sustain agricultural input production. The use of

organically certified Controlled Environment Hydroponic Systems is the quickest and most

economically feasible solution for securing an increasing global population’s safe food supply.

Using these innovative systems along with the NOP’s certification concepts will allow for the

reduction of space utilized by agricultural operations, leaving nature to heal and restore

ecosystems damaged by human development.

Certified organic hydroponics uses 100% plant soluble nutrients for fast absorption, all of them

are derived from naturally occurring processes which help with the enhancement of the crop’s

health and yield. Organic nutrient solutions for commercial hydroponic production contain

essential major, secondary and trace minerals derived from natural sources such as cold-

processed enzymatically digested fish protein, seabird guano, kelp, seaweed, earthworm

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 9

castings, coconut extracts, leonardite, limestone, yucca extract and krill extract. (Planet Natural

2015) The common denominator and most valuable characteristic for most of these hydroponic

solutions is that they are byproducts of already existing agribusiness operations.

The trademarked Agricultural Byproduct Value Recovery System, or ABVRS, was created and

patented by Auburn University to be used as a valuable and replicable tool to be used in a

variety of situations at different stages in the food supply chain. The ABVRS uses a quick,

energy-efficient and environmentally sound rendering process that, as opposed to conventional

rendering methods, creates no foul odors, toxic emissions or wastewater as it recycles animal

tissue from food processing plants and other agricultural byproducts into both high-protein fish

meal for use in poultry, livestock and fish feed and heart-healthy omega 3 fish oil. (Creamer

2012) This pioneer effort to significantly reduce the amount of wasted byproducts correctly

aligns with the current goal of all of the organic hydroponic nutrient producing enterprises,

which is to utilize the natural occurring processes as a means for producing certifiable inputs for

the farming industry.

Multiplicity of Ideas for Ecological Healing

It is fair to compare the large number of factors contributing to the creation of current

degenerative systems to the multiple effective solutions that can be achieved by using human

intellect and intelligence to sustain the healthy survival of our species. In his book Blessed

Unrest Paul Hawken presents what he calls “The Movement with No Name”, as the largest

social movement of human history. Hawken estimates that as of 2007, 2 million people

worldwide were involved with a number of grassroots groups and non-governmental

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 10

organizations that fight for social justice, indigenous rights and environmental sanity. According

to him the numbers are increasing, which is causing us to experience the Time of the Great

Turning. (Macy 2014)

Some of the strongest arguments used to contradict advocates of certified organic controlled

environment hydroponic food production focus on the huge startup investments, lack of

economically sustainable energy sources and an unreliable supplies of agricultural inputs. MIT

and other higher education facilities have factored all of these issues into the equation that

they think can solve our planet’s problem. (MIT 2015)

Some of the solutions outlined in MIT’s (2015) study:

Crops can be grown in "stories" in order to maximize vertical space and minimize land

occupation

Crops can be grown in controlled environments with optimal "weather" conditions. The

limitation of transpiration stresses means enhanced productivity (Sahara Forest Project,

2009). Productivity within a hydroponic facility is productivity that does not detract from

the fertility of the soils of terrestrial habitats.

Manipulated, expansive monocultures can be raised (in order to feed our immense

population) without depleting soil or hindering the developments of less-biologically-

engineered specimens of the base species.

The fresh water produced from seawater treatment requires no chemical treatment. As

a result, the possibility of process-induced pollution and eutrophication is eliminated by

using this system. (Seawater Greenhouse Limited, 2010)

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 11

Onyx Solar, a Spanish producer of transparent photovoltaic systems, has solved the issue of

simplifying expensive initial energy investments. The company has developed a line of

completely see-through solar panels that function both as a reliable greenhouse building

material and an efficient energy producer. This multifunctional innovation is the missing puzzle

piece that forges the creation of self-sustained off-grid controlled environment hydroponic

systems in densely growing urban centers. Onyx has formed alliances with huge multinational

corporations like Coca Cola, Dow, Pfizer and DuPont in an attempt to commercialize this already

financially pleasing alternative to conventional photovoltaic systems. (Onyx Solar 2015)

Productive companies like Houweling’s Tomatoes in Camarillo, California have mastered the art

of incorporating all of these approaches only to emerge as the leaders in their respective

industry. Within the state, Houweling’s produces excess of 24 times the amount of tomatoes as

traditional field farming. According to their long-term studies, it takes over 3,000 acres of open

field conventionally farmed land to match the output of their 125 acres of certified organic

hydroponic greenhouses. Their 5 acres of photovoltaic solar panels provide one megawatt of

electricity and their new 13.2 megawatt heat-and-power cogeneration technology is the first of

its kind in the United States, it captures traditionally wasted heat, water and CO2 for use within

the greenhouse. In 2011, they received the California Governor’s Environmental and Economic

Leadership Award (GEELA) for operating the largest controlled environment farming operation

in the US off the grid. (Houweling’s Tomatoes 2015)

The conclusion of 25 years of hydroponic system innovations has proven to be the most

tangible asset for the preservation of our environment’s resources and biodiversity. Paired with

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 12

the research conducted in controlled environment agriculture university extensions, this system

will efficiently sustain the nutritional needs of a population increase while preserving the

ecology and fertility of our soils. Hydroponic’s main goal and direct effect of reducing space

designated for food production is the righteous path to return affected land to nature.

Triggering ecological healing processes by placing essential pieces of nature back into their

respective place in the system is the safest alternative this world has to preserve the Earth’s

supernatural ability to sustain its inhabitants.

Consumers and producers across the globe are using their 15 billion years of combined

intellectual evolution to contradict the pessimistic perspectives put forth by the people who

oppose this theory with monumental facts supported by decades of research and success.

Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 13

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Organic Hydroponic’s Immense Potential 15

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