4 ms·
Only crops that are mostly water (lettuce, tomatoes) can be economically grown hydroponically. We need topsoil to grow cereals (corn, wheat etc).
by jasonlaramburu 7y ago
Only crops that are mostly water (lettuce, tomatoes) can be economically grown hydroponically. We need topsoil to grow cereals (corn, wheat etc).
- DocTomoe 7y agoGiven that cereals tend to not be too good for us ... maybe we should limit them anyways?
- jasonlaramburu 7y agoPerhaps but we also use cereals and row crops to feed livestock (corn), make vegetarian protein (soybeans, canola, wheat) and make our clothes (cotton). None of these can be grown hydroponically.
- wampwamp 7y agoHemp gives you all those things and grows extremely well hydroponically.
- nate_meurer 7y agoMore importantly, hemp grows well in poor soils.
- aliswe 7y agoIt's not the water content per se I think, most herbs thrive in this medium as well. Most probably the crops' price and growing speed are the deciding factors. Oh, and check this anecdote out: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/from-paddy-fields-to-uae-deserts-the-farmer-growing-rice-using-hydroponics-1.46990 https://www.thenational.ae/uae/from-paddy-fields-to-uae-dese...
- randyrand 7y agoOnce topsoil is depleted, the economics change drastically. Point is, we won’t starve. But we will need to expend more resources gathering food.