just don’t know. For me, having done a lot of LEDs inside, there’s no way that (plant) tissue is as healthy or as terse or as strong. I just haven’t seen it. Whether it is inorganic or organic in an artificially lit environment, I don’t see the health of the plant as I do with sunlit environments.
JP: Do you believe the adage that humans, for
the most part fear what they do not know, has been a catalyst to the adversarial relationship between soil-grown and soil-less? Or is this fear based on the increase in indoor vertical farming operations and the soil growers essentially fear they will lose business and market share?
They can make a difference by doing that. That’s an act of power and has more value than the word “organic”.
JP: Thank you Michael. You are a gentleman and a scholar and I hope you catch some big fish!
For more: AmHydro (American Hydroponics), 286 South G St., Arcata, CA 95521; (800) 458-6543; http://americanhydroponics.com/. Jim Pantaleo is the Business Developer at Urban Ag News; jim@urbanagnews.com.
MC:
I think it’s all of those. I think they do fear what they don’t know and a lot of these big guys, especially big ag with all their machinery, have been doing that (growing in soil) for hundreds of years. They know that they get so much per acre and they can get organic certification if they talk to “Jack” and they jump through hoops. But meanwhile, all these localized, food production farms have such high production rates. In 8,000-square-foot greenhouses these guys are producing 6,000 heads of lettuce a week, year round. And when you look at 28 million heads of lettuce produced in the U.S. per year, you can see that all you need is maybe 15 or 20 acres located near cities and you’re going to put a hurtin’ on big ag. People prefer, instead of shipped-in produce at a lesser quality, they prefer locally grown. And the locally-grown guys are expanding like crazy because the market is just so open and ripe right now. People prefer to know that the grower who is growing the food they are eating lives down the street. And why would he mess with them and put pesticides in their food? It’s becoming more of a community operation. The whole issue of pricing, distribution and organic…people just want to get food from their neighbor. People don’t want to feel powerless and they can do something by going to their local store and buying something locally produced.
Michael Christian visits with Ryan Snead at The Next Season Farm in Bend, Ore. 13