11 ms·

Glyphosate in Organic Hydroponic Food Production

138 points by sahin-boydas 7y ago

koolba 7y ago
> NOP argues that because glyphosate does not “touch” the plants being certified, it is technically still “organic.” If that’s not the craziest assumption I’ve heard in regards to organic food production, I don’t know what is. For those of you who don’t know – anything that touches the soil eventually gets taken up by the plant. It becomes apart of the plants tissues and DNA. It is unavoidable. IIUC, they’re spraying the ground with glyphosate to clear it, then after some time period of it dissipating, planting atop the soil but not applying the herbicide again during the crops growing phase. If the plants being grown are not glyphosate resistant (e.g. “roundup ready”) and there’s a non-trivial level of it remaining in the soil, wouldn’t that kill the crops? Reversing that, are there any significant levels in the ground or absorbed by the plants at that point? Seems like it’s a “no”.
- ac29 7y ago
  > If the plants being grown are not glyphosate resistant (e.g. “roundup ready”) and there’s a non-trivial level of it remaining in the soil, wouldn’t that kill the crops? No, because hydroponic crops are not planted into the soil.
  - koolba 7y ago
    I totally missed the hydroponic part but now I’m even more confused. If the plants are hydroponic than what are they spraying and why? The land around and under the greenhouse?
    - bardworx 7y ago
      That’s how I’m reading it. They spray the ground to clear it and the plants are in a container atop the soil. If the farmer plants in the soil that was treated, it can’t be considered organic for 3 years (unless the substance that was used is certified for organic crops)
- fortran77 7y ago
  How does it become part of the "DNA"? How does that work?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- morpheuskafka 7y ago
  The only chemicals that will ever "become apart of DNA" are the four chemicals that make it up--anything else is not dioxyribonucleicacid by definiton.
prvc 7y ago
The buried lede here is that "organic", as applied to food is itself a meaningless concept. It's just an ersatz religious practice. What assurance is there that no glyphosate particles have found their way onto your artisanal apple grown in zebu manure?
- thrower123 7y ago
  The only way to know for sure is to plant your own garden. Although when you've had the Japanese beetles or cutworm or potato bugs ravage your harvest, considerations about being 100% organic lose some of their weight and it takes a lot of commitment not to break out the rotenone or Sevin.
  - prvc 7y ago
    >The only way to know for sure is to plant your own garden. You still don't know in that case. It is not a question of trust, or the strictness of your standards. The problem is, more fundamentally, conceptual.
  - wahern 7y ago
    > The only way to know for sure is to plant your own garden Presuming you test your soil, first. Leaded paint and leaded gasoline have heavily contaminated large parts of residential land, especially those parts closest to buildings. Unlike with commercial produce where only a particular plant here or there may have come from a contaminated patch of land, if your garden is contaminated you're being exposed regularly. Similarly, even if all the land around you is pristine, who knows what a previous owner may have done at any particular spot. Maybe someone once stacked a dozen, leaky lead-acid batteries where you want to plant your garden. It's kind of unthinkable for many people today (if only because we're not a fix-it yourself society much anymore), but people regularly did dumb stuff like that years ago, and some still do today.
- torgoguys 7y ago
  And who is to say that organic carrot you're eating is any better for you. From a pesticide standpoint, almost all of the pesticides we eat (by weight) are natural and possible carcinogens. [1] A person's synthetic pesticide exposure is dwarfed by the natural pesticide chemicals the plants produce themselves (except for farm workers). Dose makes the poison--at the small levels we intake, with normal handling, risk is very low for both categories. (And don't get me on my soapbox about the villification of glyphosate--it's a shame). [1] Dietary pesticides, 99.99% all natural: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2217210/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2217210/
designium 7y ago
At least, when I am purchasing "Organic" products, I would expect to use the least or zero amount of pesticide/herbicide/etc. in the growth of the "organic" plants and animals. If the article is showing the truth, it feels like those companies are cheating the consumers who are paying for that premium product. It's also unfortunate that there are certifications companies that are either created or "cooped" by companies that are really interested in bending the rules for their own sake. Not sure if there is a way to block or hamper those interest group effectively. *Edited: I understand that the companies are using the herbicide before the planting in order to "kill" whatever is there; however, the concept of organic - the way I believe - should avoid the usage of chemicals that are being used in the massive agriculture for cash crops; and even if that is not being actively use in the "organic" plant.
- amadeusw 7y ago
  You're right that the organic designation is about completely avoiding the usage of certain substances. The article refers to this idea towards the end: >As the soil becomes compacted and soaked with agrichemicals, the delicate microbiome of the soil is destroyed. The whole point of growing organically is to ensure this planet stays healthy and chemical-free.
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    > The whole point of growing organically is to ensure this planet stays healthy and chemical-free. The planet is entirely made of chemicals, it can't be made chemical-free and, even if it could, that wouldn't be healthy.
    - mc32 7y ago
      I guess they the proponents kinda mean that (agricultural) chemicals be near their natural concentrations in arable lands. So there are going to be chemicals naturally, and harmful ones, but in normal non/not very harmful to humans concentrations. And of course earth is made of chemicals and “organic” chemicals (gotta use quotes so as to not confuse with organic chemistry) are also harmful (if they were not, they’d be of little use against pests).
infogulch 7y ago
The article has an update at the top that references this USDA memo [1] that summarizes the regulation. I'm not sure how much of the article is invalid as a result, but it seems to make claims that are directly refuted by the memo dated 6 months before the article was published. [1]: https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2019-Certifiers-Container-Crops.pdf https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2019-Cert...
- zephix 7y ago
  Yeah. It certainly appears to invalidate the entire article.
droithomme 7y ago
Round-Up is not really my idea of Organic. The organic label was coopted years ago and has meant very little for years.
all_blue_chucks 7y ago
Organic has always been a marketing gimmick to help sell generic food products. If it were actually about pesticide-free farming it would be called "pesticide-free" not "organic."
- axaxs 7y ago
  It is a pretty stupid term, moreso if you think about it from the mindset of organic chemistry...
zephix 7y ago
lol the update completely invalidates the clickbait premise of this extremist article. I can't imagine why it's being upvoted.
peterwwillis 7y ago
This article makes zero sense. It's about hydroponics - growing plants in water, without soil. But it's complaining about spraying the ground that a greenhouse is built on top of. Am I missing something, or is glyphosate going into the ground, and the plants are never touching the ground?
- tinix 7y ago
  Pretty much, that's how I read it too. This has nothing to do with glyphosate being on the hydroponic crops. It says it right there in the article: > This is all because the USDA does not consider spraying toxic herbicides like glyphosate on the soil immediately prior to inspection to be a disqualifier for organic certification. > According to Jennifer, because the plant itself is not being exposed to prohibited substances like glyphosate, spraying the ground with herbicides the week before organic certification is 100% legal.
sbassi 7y ago
The title is misleading. The Glyphosate is used in the soil BEFORE the greenhouse is built. This prevent weeds to break the greenhouse plastics. But is not administered to the final product that goes to the final consumer.
- objektif 7y ago
  Where do the potatos grow? Same soil isnt it? Isnt this a childish way to argue about it?
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    No... these are hydroponic, meaning they are grown without soil.
leoh 7y ago
Organic certifiers have differing standards. Given the continued demand for organic — even Walmart is bullish on it these days — unscrupulous certifiers like the USDA will cut corners. In response, great certifiers like CCOF (https://ccof.org/ https://ccof.org/) and Oregon Tilth (https://tilth.org/ https://tilth.org/), which would never allow the use of glyphosate, will seek to distinguish themselves from the pack.
xref 7y ago
The specific bit where it is allowed on hydroponic farms: > glyphosate (an incredibly toxic herbicide that is absolutely prohibited on organic farms) is being sprayed on fields prior to constructing hydroponic greenhouses awaiting organic certification. This is done to remove weeds from the greenhouses.
- jsilence 7y ago
  By the way, glyphosate is not at all "incredibly toxic". Its toxicity, the debatable claim about causing cancer set aside since that is not about toxicity, is well below that of coffee. It would be safe to ingest larger amounts of glyphosate, and people actually have done that.
tptacek 7y ago
I don't have an opinion for or against use of glyphosate with "organic" food and share the general cynicism of the thread about the "organic" label. But this site has a strong position on glyphosate (in accepting the premise that it is a "probable human carcinogen"), which is worth staying aware of. That position is probably totally reasonable for their audience, but keep in mind that it's automatically being recontextualized by being posted on HN. So on this site, it's worth keeping in mind that glyphosate's status as a human health bogeyman is, at least, debatable. There is a huge amount of controversy over the manner in which IARC came to its conclusion, other health agencies have sharply disagreed with it, and, perhaps most importantly for this article, the exposure scenarios connecting cancer risk to glyphosate probably aren't relevant to food consumers. Since part of the point of glyphosate is to reduce application of stronger herbicides that are more biologically active in humans, and those herbicides are generally neither known by name to consumers nor banned from agriculture, it's worth splitting hairs here.
- OnlineGladiator 7y ago
  > Since part of the point of glyphosate is to reduce application of stronger herbicides that are more biologically active in humans, and those herbicides are generally neither known by name to consumers nor banned from agriculture, it's worth splitting hairs here. I am operating completely from memory here so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this at least partially counteracted by having to use significantly more herbicide to account for its lower efficacy?
- chimi 7y ago
  The site is not credible. This is not news, it's propaganda. The article doesn't belong here. It's just provocation designed to make amazon affiliate money. For example, the article says: > For those of you who don’t know – anything that touches the soil eventually gets taken up by the plant. It becomes apart of the plants tissues and DNA. It is unavoidable. The point of hydroponic farming is the plants don't touch the soil. They don't take anything out of the soil at all. Glyphosate does not become part of a plant's DNA. Edit: Down votes why? It's an anti-vax website for crying out loud: https://livelovefruit.com/still-vaccinating-25-questions-former-pro-vaccine-advocate/ https://livelovefruit.com/still-vaccinating-25-questions-for...
mikeiz404 7y ago
So I am a little confused here. My understanding of hydroponics, a method which uses an inert medium for the root system to grow in and is often a relatively closed system, aquaponics, also a pretty closed system which uses water for the roots to grow in, and aeroponics, a relatively closed system which uses a fine mist for the root system, have pretty much zero interaction with the soil which is outside of the system. What is stated is that >glyphosate...is being sprayed on fields prior to constructing hydroponic greenhouses awaiting organic certification. This is done to remove weeds from the greenhouses. >The way this use of herbicide is incorporated into “organic” certification is to...level a field, compact it..., wait...until the weeds...have germinated. And then spray it with an herbicide. They are doing this in California and Florida. The weeds...can grow straight through the black plastic. What I take away is that the herbicide is being sprayed as part of construction on the ground and then it is covered. My guess is that this black plastic is used as a weed block and or helps isolate the outside environment. >the NOP continues to assert that hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic production is allowed (1). NOP argues that because glyphosate does not “touch” the plants being certified, it is technically still “organic. Typically in a hydroponic setup you’re growing the root system in a container filled with a nutrient solution which is not in contact with the soil so it seems reasonable to assume the plant will not be in contact with the soil. Except for maybe the air, the inputs to the plant should also be isolated from the soil. At least that is my understanding. Please feel free to correct any errors here. So from a strictly certification standpoint I can understand why the fruit would remain organic. However it does seem to violate the intent I assume most people buy organic products for. Personally I’m not sure where I stand on glyphosates at the moment but given language like this in the article... >Using common sense, this would rightfully deem any product non-organic – but this doesn’t seem to be the case for hydroponics >Besides the fact that it is obvious that organics cannot and should not be sprayed with glyphosate, the NOP continues to assert that... >If that’s not the craziest assumption I’ve heard in regards to organic food production, I don’t know what is... I feel like some of this needs to be balanced out and we approach this with our eyes fully open. Some relevant resources: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroponics
RachelF 7y ago
I don't understand this at all: Why would you need kill weeds (unwanted plants) if you are growing your plants hydrophonically? What am I missing?
- undersuit 7y ago
  Glyphosate disrupts a key biochemical pathway in most plants and bacteria and probably some other lifeforms I don't know about. Hydroponic grow-ops can still deal with weeds, one I know about is duckweed, an incredibly invasive water plant.

138 points by sahin-boydas 7y ago

> NOP argues that because glyphosate does not “touch” the plants being certified, it is technically still “organic.” If that’s not the craziest assumption I’ve heard in regards to organic food production, I don’t know what is. For those of you who don’t know – anything that touches the soil eventually gets taken up by the plant. It becomes apart of the plants tissues and DNA. It is unavoidable. IIUC, they’re spraying the ground with glyphosate to clear it, then after some time period of it dissipating, planting atop the soil but not applying the herbicide again during the crops growing phase. If the plants being grown are not glyphosate resistant (e.g. “roundup ready”) and there’s a non-trivial level of it remaining in the soil, wouldn’t that kill the crops? Reversing that, are there any significant levels in the ground or absorbed by the plants at that point? Seems like it’s a “no”.

ac29 7y ago
> If the plants being grown are not glyphosate resistant (e.g. “roundup ready”) and there’s a non-trivial level of it remaining in the soil, wouldn’t that kill the crops? No, because hydroponic crops are not planted into the soil.
- koolba 7y ago
  I totally missed the hydroponic part but now I’m even more confused. If the plants are hydroponic than what are they spraying and why? The land around and under the greenhouse?
  - bardworx 7y ago
    That’s how I’m reading it. They spray the ground to clear it and the plants are in a container atop the soil. If the farmer plants in the soil that was treated, it can’t be considered organic for 3 years (unless the substance that was used is certified for organic crops)
fortran77 7y ago
How does it become part of the "DNA"? How does that work?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
morpheuskafka 7y ago
The only chemicals that will ever "become apart of DNA" are the four chemicals that make it up--anything else is not dioxyribonucleicacid by definiton.

prvc 7y ago

The buried lede here is that "organic", as applied to food is itself a meaningless concept. It's just an ersatz religious practice. What assurance is there that no glyphosate particles have found their way onto your artisanal apple grown in zebu manure?

thrower123 7y ago
The only way to know for sure is to plant your own garden. Although when you've had the Japanese beetles or cutworm or potato bugs ravage your harvest, considerations about being 100% organic lose some of their weight and it takes a lot of commitment not to break out the rotenone or Sevin.
- prvc 7y ago
  >The only way to know for sure is to plant your own garden. You still don't know in that case. It is not a question of trust, or the strictness of your standards. The problem is, more fundamentally, conceptual.
- wahern 7y ago
  > The only way to know for sure is to plant your own garden Presuming you test your soil, first. Leaded paint and leaded gasoline have heavily contaminated large parts of residential land, especially those parts closest to buildings. Unlike with commercial produce where only a particular plant here or there may have come from a contaminated patch of land, if your garden is contaminated you're being exposed regularly. Similarly, even if all the land around you is pristine, who knows what a previous owner may have done at any particular spot. Maybe someone once stacked a dozen, leaky lead-acid batteries where you want to plant your garden. It's kind of unthinkable for many people today (if only because we're not a fix-it yourself society much anymore), but people regularly did dumb stuff like that years ago, and some still do today.
torgoguys 7y ago
And who is to say that organic carrot you're eating is any better for you. From a pesticide standpoint, almost all of the pesticides we eat (by weight) are natural and possible carcinogens. [1] A person's synthetic pesticide exposure is dwarfed by the natural pesticide chemicals the plants produce themselves (except for farm workers). Dose makes the poison--at the small levels we intake, with normal handling, risk is very low for both categories. (And don't get me on my soapbox about the villification of glyphosate--it's a shame). [1] Dietary pesticides, 99.99% all natural: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2217210/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2217210/

designium 7y ago

At least, when I am purchasing "Organic" products, I would expect to use the least or zero amount of pesticide/herbicide/etc. in the growth of the "organic" plants and animals. If the article is showing the truth, it feels like those companies are cheating the consumers who are paying for that premium product. It's also unfortunate that there are certifications companies that are either created or "cooped" by companies that are really interested in bending the rules for their own sake. Not sure if there is a way to block or hamper those interest group effectively. *Edited: I understand that the companies are using the herbicide before the planting in order to "kill" whatever is there; however, the concept of organic - the way I believe - should avoid the usage of chemicals that are being used in the massive agriculture for cash crops; and even if that is not being actively use in the "organic" plant.

amadeusw 7y ago
You're right that the organic designation is about completely avoiding the usage of certain substances. The article refers to this idea towards the end: >As the soil becomes compacted and soaked with agrichemicals, the delicate microbiome of the soil is destroyed. The whole point of growing organically is to ensure this planet stays healthy and chemical-free.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > The whole point of growing organically is to ensure this planet stays healthy and chemical-free. The planet is entirely made of chemicals, it can't be made chemical-free and, even if it could, that wouldn't be healthy.
  - mc32 7y ago
    I guess they the proponents kinda mean that (agricultural) chemicals be near their natural concentrations in arable lands. So there are going to be chemicals naturally, and harmful ones, but in normal non/not very harmful to humans concentrations. And of course earth is made of chemicals and “organic” chemicals (gotta use quotes so as to not confuse with organic chemistry) are also harmful (if they were not, they’d be of little use against pests).

infogulch 7y ago

The article has an update at the top that references this USDA memo [1] that summarizes the regulation. I'm not sure how much of the article is invalid as a result, but it seems to make claims that are directly refuted by the memo dated 6 months before the article was published. [1]: https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2019-Certifiers-Container-Crops.pdf https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2019-Cert...

zephix 7y ago
Yeah. It certainly appears to invalidate the entire article.

droithomme 7y ago

Round-Up is not really my idea of Organic. The organic label was coopted years ago and has meant very little for years.

all_blue_chucks 7y ago

Organic has always been a marketing gimmick to help sell generic food products. If it were actually about pesticide-free farming it would be called "pesticide-free" not "organic."

axaxs 7y ago
It is a pretty stupid term, moreso if you think about it from the mindset of organic chemistry...

zephix 7y ago

lol the update completely invalidates the clickbait premise of this extremist article. I can't imagine why it's being upvoted.

peterwwillis 7y ago

This article makes zero sense. It's about hydroponics - growing plants in water, without soil. But it's complaining about spraying the ground that a greenhouse is built on top of. Am I missing something, or is glyphosate going into the ground, and the plants are never touching the ground?

tinix 7y ago
Pretty much, that's how I read it too. This has nothing to do with glyphosate being on the hydroponic crops. It says it right there in the article: > This is all because the USDA does not consider spraying toxic herbicides like glyphosate on the soil immediately prior to inspection to be a disqualifier for organic certification. > According to Jennifer, because the plant itself is not being exposed to prohibited substances like glyphosate, spraying the ground with herbicides the week before organic certification is 100% legal.

sbassi 7y ago

The title is misleading. The Glyphosate is used in the soil BEFORE the greenhouse is built. This prevent weeds to break the greenhouse plastics. But is not administered to the final product that goes to the final consumer.

objektif 7y ago
Where do the potatos grow? Same soil isnt it? Isnt this a childish way to argue about it?
- cortesoft 7y ago
  No... these are hydroponic, meaning they are grown without soil.

leoh 7y ago

Organic certifiers have differing standards. Given the continued demand for organic — even Walmart is bullish on it these days — unscrupulous certifiers like the USDA will cut corners. In response, great certifiers like CCOF (https://ccof.org/ https://ccof.org/) and Oregon Tilth (https://tilth.org/ https://tilth.org/), which would never allow the use of glyphosate, will seek to distinguish themselves from the pack.

xref 7y ago

The specific bit where it is allowed on hydroponic farms: > glyphosate (an incredibly toxic herbicide that is absolutely prohibited on organic farms) is being sprayed on fields prior to constructing hydroponic greenhouses awaiting organic certification. This is done to remove weeds from the greenhouses.

jsilence 7y ago
By the way, glyphosate is not at all "incredibly toxic". Its toxicity, the debatable claim about causing cancer set aside since that is not about toxicity, is well below that of coffee. It would be safe to ingest larger amounts of glyphosate, and people actually have done that.

tptacek 7y ago

I don't have an opinion for or against use of glyphosate with "organic" food and share the general cynicism of the thread about the "organic" label. But this site has a strong position on glyphosate (in accepting the premise that it is a "probable human carcinogen"), which is worth staying aware of. That position is probably totally reasonable for their audience, but keep in mind that it's automatically being recontextualized by being posted on HN. So on this site, it's worth keeping in mind that glyphosate's status as a human health bogeyman is, at least, debatable. There is a huge amount of controversy over the manner in which IARC came to its conclusion, other health agencies have sharply disagreed with it, and, perhaps most importantly for this article, the exposure scenarios connecting cancer risk to glyphosate probably aren't relevant to food consumers. Since part of the point of glyphosate is to reduce application of stronger herbicides that are more biologically active in humans, and those herbicides are generally neither known by name to consumers nor banned from agriculture, it's worth splitting hairs here.

OnlineGladiator 7y ago
> Since part of the point of glyphosate is to reduce application of stronger herbicides that are more biologically active in humans, and those herbicides are generally neither known by name to consumers nor banned from agriculture, it's worth splitting hairs here. I am operating completely from memory here so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this at least partially counteracted by having to use significantly more herbicide to account for its lower efficacy?
chimi 7y ago
The site is not credible. This is not news, it's propaganda. The article doesn't belong here. It's just provocation designed to make amazon affiliate money. For example, the article says: > For those of you who don’t know – anything that touches the soil eventually gets taken up by the plant. It becomes apart of the plants tissues and DNA. It is unavoidable. The point of hydroponic farming is the plants don't touch the soil. They don't take anything out of the soil at all. Glyphosate does not become part of a plant's DNA. Edit: Down votes why? It's an anti-vax website for crying out loud: https://livelovefruit.com/still-vaccinating-25-questions-former-pro-vaccine-advocate/ https://livelovefruit.com/still-vaccinating-25-questions-for...

mikeiz404 7y ago

So I am a little confused here. My understanding of hydroponics, a method which uses an inert medium for the root system to grow in and is often a relatively closed system, aquaponics, also a pretty closed system which uses water for the roots to grow in, and aeroponics, a relatively closed system which uses a fine mist for the root system, have pretty much zero interaction with the soil which is outside of the system. What is stated is that >glyphosate...is being sprayed on fields prior to constructing hydroponic greenhouses awaiting organic certification. This is done to remove weeds from the greenhouses. >The way this use of herbicide is incorporated into “organic” certification is to...level a field, compact it..., wait...until the weeds...have germinated. And then spray it with an herbicide. They are doing this in California and Florida. The weeds...can grow straight through the black plastic. What I take away is that the herbicide is being sprayed as part of construction on the ground and then it is covered. My guess is that this black plastic is used as a weed block and or helps isolate the outside environment. >the NOP continues to assert that hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic production is allowed (1). NOP argues that because glyphosate does not “touch” the plants being certified, it is technically still “organic. Typically in a hydroponic setup you’re growing the root system in a container filled with a nutrient solution which is not in contact with the soil so it seems reasonable to assume the plant will not be in contact with the soil. Except for maybe the air, the inputs to the plant should also be isolated from the soil. At least that is my understanding. Please feel free to correct any errors here. So from a strictly certification standpoint I can understand why the fruit would remain organic. However it does seem to violate the intent I assume most people buy organic products for. Personally I’m not sure where I stand on glyphosates at the moment but given language like this in the article... >Using common sense, this would rightfully deem any product non-organic – but this doesn’t seem to be the case for hydroponics >Besides the fact that it is obvious that organics cannot and should not be sprayed with glyphosate, the NOP continues to assert that... >If that’s not the craziest assumption I’ve heard in regards to organic food production, I don’t know what is... I feel like some of this needs to be balanced out and we approach this with our eyes fully open. Some relevant resources: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroponics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroponics

RachelF 7y ago

I don't understand this at all: Why would you need kill weeds (unwanted plants) if you are growing your plants hydrophonically? What am I missing?

undersuit 7y ago
Glyphosate disrupts a key biochemical pathway in most plants and bacteria and probably some other lifeforms I don't know about. Hydroponic grow-ops can still deal with weeds, one I know about is duckweed, an incredibly invasive water plant.