• Commercial or Home Garden sequesters about 12 pounds of food per day.
• Food is grown on site so there is no transportation costs in fossil fuel
• Food is picked fresh as needed so there is no refrigeration costs to food storage
• No pesticides or herbicides are used in the production of the food

 

 

• Garden is built from wood and plastic that must be harvested, manufactured and tranported to site.
• Growing Media must be replaced after 6 crops and so it must be transported to site.
• Eventual need to dispose of wood grower, after 4 years - short time use of wood
• Potential loss of natural vegetation under the micro-garden

 

 

Human Health Impact

Health Benefits

• Increase in calories to recognized minimums prevents starvation death.
• Potential to provide Vitamins A and C reduces childhood disease and food related problems
• Preventing malnutrition and associated health risks
• Potential to provide basic medicinal herbs for some health problems
• Potential to ensure adequate mineral nutrition through adequate supply to hydroponic plants

 

 

Health Losses
• Potential to introduce disease through inadequate mineral nutrition to plants
• Potential to increase oxalic acid in plants such as spinach and Chard
• Potential to increase nitrate and reduce Vitamin C by excess nitrogen fertilization
• Potential to introduce toxic substances by the use of toxic materials in the hydroponic growers
• Potential to introduce toxic substances through inadequate nutrient preparation.

• Reduced land conversion to supply food for human consumption
• A potential alternative to slash and burn agriculture
• Reduced water requirements for food production
• Herbicide use eliminated
• Chemical based pesticide use eliminated
• Reduced energy consumption in food production

 

 

• Wood required to build 20 bed growers for each family
• Plastic required for the black plastic liners for the bed growers
• Chemicals and mining required for the nutrient solution
• Transportation costs of bringing the materials to the site
• Costs of obtaining and dumping excess growing media

The white paper online is an attempt to engage the scientific community in providing research into the current techniques and practices of simplified hydroponics. We encourage participation for each topic and will support any research efforts to reduce environmental impacts of this technology.

We are now accepting comment on this paper and are beginning a mailing list for all those who wish to participate. Throughout the process, each listed topic will be expanded to include comments from researchers and maillist participants, as well as basic concepts about potentials to complete research projects.

The Institute seeks to support the efforts of simplified hydroponics and encourages other researchers to do so as well.

For further information please contact Peggy Bradley, via email.