When it comes to land and food the United States has an embarrassment of riches. And upon a closer look, maybe we should be embarrassed about what we do with both?
The Dutch Netherlands is a country of 16,040 square miles. In comparison, the United States is a behemoth comprised of 3.8 million square miles.
Yet the Netherlands is second only to the US in food exports world wide.
How is this possible and what guidance can we take from the Netherlands’ triumph of food production, especially since they’ve done it without depleting or damaging natural resources?
If you read through the links below you’ll find that the Netherlands success is rooted in creating cutting edge hydroponic farm food production and locating at a major urban seaports.
The number of urban shipping ports along US Coastal areas like those in the New York City region where such farming methods could be employed far exceeds anything the Netherlands could even dream of.
Aside from being perfect export locations for Hydroponic Farms and their products, our coastal cities and the disadvantaged and low income neighborhoods in them would also benefit. Hydroponic technology could guarantee urban citizens food supplies in a world where the future of reliable land based food production is no longer guaranteed in a climate changing world.
And then there’s the most important Giving Nature criteria that Hydroponics meets; its benefit to all of us. Hydroponic farms use as little as a tenth of the land and water that traditional farming practices do when producing the same yield because they are contained systems that utilize space and resources far more efficiently. That leaves more land for conversion to carbon sinks freed from fertilizer runoff pollution that land based agriculture creates and more fresh water to drink that isn’t getting evaporated on fields before it can even nourish the plants it’s sprayed upon during drought or in arid areas. Transportation of food produced on land becomes a major contributor to Green House Gas when trucked from farm-to processor-to urban distribution center. Urban Hydroponics farms would eliminate all of that since they can grow food right within the urban markets they serve.
All of this makes hydroponics fit neatly into the Giving Nature PATHS Philosophy of “When we eat, we eat for all” because so much good can come to all of us whether we live near a Urban Hydroponic farm or not.
It all begs the question: Why aren’t we promoting and developing Hydroponic farming? Especially, since other countries have seized upon the idea and demonstrated its great success.
In our view, the answer to these perplexing questions are to be found in our emotional relationship with food and how its been caught in an unnecessary tug of war between organic and hydroponic produce farmers. Read our next blog where we will explore this battle in greater detail and why the ultimate loser is all of us.
https://dutchgreenhouses.com/blog/how-on-earth-have-the-dutch-done-it