Nature vs Man Made: Hydroponics, Aquaponics, and Aeroponics Systems
The Pacific Islands, specifically the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Johnston Atoll or Johnston Island Recovery Operations Center, and Wake Island has served man well in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Possession of the islands, or territories, by men is a far cry from the time of 17th century English Poet and Scholar John Donne who painfully learned that “No man is an island.”
Nature’s natural evolution of ground and cycling of water has long been compromised. No doubt, man’s negative effects are countless. Population growth, climate change, and depleting water resources are consequently reinventing what we once thought of “farmland.”
“Green solutions?” Hydroponics, Aquaponics and Aeroponics growth systems need little to no soil and water. Basically, Hydroponics requires liquid nutrients; Aquaponics utilizes water and fish waste products.Aeroponic systems are air based using water a conduit.
Not necessarily new to the industry, versions of these modern greenhouses go back centuries. However, current climate and economic factors along with advancements in science and technology reengineered and boosted new markets.
The company Eurofresh Farms had hydroponically grown vegetables for years until 2013 when “NatureSweet bought bankrupt EuroFresh in April. Assets included 318 acres of greenhouses. But things are not so natural or sweet in these “greenhouses.”
Pandemic initial lockdown timing coincided with the April 6, 2020 Purdue University Newsroom Release, “Risk of E. coli in hydroponic and aquaponic systems may be greater than once thought.”
The study found, “The fish used in aquaponic growing systems may introduce E. coli to water and potentially produce crops, and accidental contamination is possible in hydroponic systems.” Let’s be clear. When they say fish they mean fish excrement.
Nutrients for “Both soilless systems, hydroponic plants are grown in water and chemical fertilizers or nutrient solutions, and aquaponic systems include the raising of fish, with fish wastewater utilized as water and nutrient source for the plants.”
Besides the questionable nutrients, we find concerning other sources and/or carriers of contaminants, the growers themselves. Recall “The presence of E. coli in the hydroponic system, in which fish were not used, suggests that the bacteria was introduced accidentally.” In other words, by humans.
Unlike traditional farming where industry lacks providing appropriate procedures and personal equipment for farmhands, the hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics industry issue appears to be recruiting experienced growers.
In the Americas, the Mexico Canada America (MCA) trade agreement may have facilitated the growth of some companies a decade ago. Reported in 2013 article, Bryant Ambelang, NatureSweet”s president, stated, “Adding the EuroFresh acreage will help NatureSweet meet growing demand in the U.S. and Mexico and allow the company to expand into Canada.”
Global markets in hydroponic growth systems were expected to triple by 2023. Given the International Space Station decades long lab experimentation with gravity and NASA’s Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS), I foresee the numbers rising with the universality of soilless systems on earth and space.
Earth’s natural nutrients absorbed by plants in traditional farming were passed on to humans. Biting into a tomato or strawberry, are humans asking was this sprayed with pesticide, fish and duck shit, chemical or artificial nutrients? If so, what are the effects on the body?
As more and more R&D is being done in gastrointestinal cancers and skin diseases, Big Pharma is “on it like white on rice.” But unlike nutrients for plants, humans systems can only take so much shit.
Sure, we may all be complicit in taking from nature, but let’s no lose focus of the few who profit, cowardly fleeing accountability. Man has stolen from Mother Nature and made her children pay.