Soil farming (think small family farm) in a field has the advantage of being stupidly cheap. Free sun, free water, free nutrients, as long as you're not going f

Soil farming (think small family farm) in a field has the advantage of being stupidly cheap. Free sun, free water, free nutrients, as long as you're not going for 150% yields like the big mono-farms do. The tradeoff is lack of consistency. It's easy to have a bad season that gives you shit yields. Plus it's a ton of work. There's a reason we've worked so hard to automate so much of that. Hydro gives you a significant amount of control. Exact amount and wavelength of light, exact timing and amount of nutrients, exact temperature, humidity, co2, wind, etc. All with significantly higher costs. There's a reason that those "hydroponics in a skyscraper" basically grow lettuce, because it's the same growing profile as weed, which is a high profit crop.