patrick.net

clambo says

I just saw this in the La Paz Baja Sur Walmart.
Do they sell this stuff in the USA?

I hope not. It's an enormous waste of resources.

Hydroponics is a great idea, for a space station or off world colony, but they are grown under lamps. It's the difference between the sun (free) and lamps (not free and energy intensive). Ignore the care that is required.

The reality is that hydroponics was developed to more efficiently grow cannibals and other plants our government decided were "illegal". It originated from the space program in the 1960's, but it really has no use otherwise. If insects are a tremendous problem, you'd grow in greenhouses.

Right, if weather is a concern, I think Iceland has the most Greenhouses of any nation in the world, but the plants are grown in soil as normal.

The only possibly more efficient mechanism would be Aquaponics, where one is raising bulk Tilapia along with low demand greens which are growing in a ceramic/clay medium that's floating on water, so the fish poop is soaking into the clay superstrate and growing the lettuce, much of which is going to the fish. Essentially combining hydroponics with pisciculture.

https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/article/suncrest-usa-lettuce-hydroponic-way/

Connoisseur stuff for special customers at this point.

Hydroponics and other urban gardening/small scale farming can reduce energy inputs by reducing transportation costs. Most of these urban producers are contracted with restaurants and don’t sell their crops at retail. And since the wealthy in larger northern cities might also be willing to pay a premium for local produce , you’d be surprised at how common hydroponics is. I would think it is also less prone to fecal contamination like on farms in California and Mexico.

PeopleUnited says

Hydroponics and other urban gardening/small scale farming can reduce energy inputs by reducing transportation costs

They use a GROSS amount of energy to produce light to grow the food.

It's boutique.

It's like driving an electric car, SURE you feel like you're saving the environment, but you're driving a car that cost $30,000 worth of energy to produce, and is running on coal and natural gas produced at a power plant, and that's if you have a shitty electric car. Also, your car was made from slave labor mining cobalt.

I hate being an engineer and seeing false solutions being offered. I despise ESG. I swear to god, it's just enslavement, it does NOT make the world better, cleaner, or less polluted. It's a total scam.

richwicks says

They use a GROSS amount of energy to produce light to grow the food.

Hydroponics doesn't necessarily mean indoor. It's a way of delivering nutrients to growing plants.

Onvacation says

richwicks says

They use a GROSS amount of energy to produce light to grow the food.

Hydroponics doesn't necessarily mean indoor. It's a way of delivering nutrients to growing plants.

I know it doesn't mean that, but show me a hydroponic farm that is outside.

I've looked at plenty of this stuff. "Vertical Farming" was promoted for a while. It doesn't work. I don't know who is funding this, but not goddamned company is, because they'd go bankrupt. This is government bullshit. We're the Soviet Union now. Free markets DO work. Centralized markets are dooming us. You have to subsidize a bunch of crap that will never be profitable. It's wealth transfer.

I don't know how they do it but sunlight is abundant in Mexico, maybe they use greenhouses.

I was shocked to see it, I've never seen anything in Mexico before I saw it in the USA first.

richwicks says

Free markets DO work.

Yep, and the market has spoken. There is a growing demand for hydroponic greens. And producers are making money, no mention of government subsidies on the shipping container hydroponics information sites unlike your electric car straw man analogy which obviously is full of subsidies.

richwicks says

show me a hydroponic farm that is outside.

They're out there.

From the article that onvacation posted:
Hydroponics is significantly more environmentally friendly than field-grown lettuce, Day said. For example, it takes 16-38 gallons of water to grow a single head of lettuce in the field, but only one gallon using hydroponics.
According to USDA, field yields for field-grown lettuce are only about 0.4 heads per square foot, compared with 25-plus heads per square foot in hydroponics.

Hydroponics is a nutrient delivery system, and those nutrients are a big input/cost. Even with fish waste supplying the nutrients, you still gotta feed the fish....

Onvacation says

richwicks says

show me a hydroponic farm that is outside.

They're out there.

THAT'S NOT OUTSIDE!!!

EDIT: Also: I don't think that's hydroponic.

Spain was using covered farming when I was there a couple of years ago. Indirect light bleeding thru the coverings, holds in more moisture. Must be like a sauna inside.

richwicks says

THAT'S NOT OUTSIDE!!!

It's a greenhouse. It uses natural sustainable sunshine.