One of the most controversial issues in the organic industry is the allowance of hydroponics, and it is something we have covered extensively over the years in Organic Insider.
Below the video are key elements of the issue to understand and how to purchase non-hydroponic organic fruits and vegetables.
WHAT ARE HYDROPONICS AND WHY ARE THEY SO PROBLEMATIC IN ORGANIC?
Hydroponics is a production method of growing crops in water where the plant’s nutrition is supplied by a liquid feed, instead of having the nutrition supplied by biologically active soil.
While many people in organic have no issue with hydroponics, per se, they do have a very serious issue with them being allowed in organic. Why?
Hydroponics violate Section 6513 b-1 of the Organic Foods Production Act, as ratified by Congress.
Among other things, the law says that:
An organic plan shall contain provisions designed to foster soil fertility, primarily through the management of the organic content of the soil through proper tillage, crop rotation, and manuring.
Growing plants in a bucket of water, or in a plastic bag with an inert substrate such as coconut husks, has absolutely nothing to do with fostering soil fertility.
In fact, there is no soil fertility to manage at all in one of these hydroponic systems.
While soil-based organic production systems sequester carbon, fix nitrogen, build soil health, increase the water-holding capacity of soils, prevent soil erosion, foster the cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, conserve biodiversity and provide numerous ecological services, hydroponic production systems do none of this – yet the USDA currently allows such operations to be certified as “organic” and, consequently, hydroponic organic produce is indistinguishable on the shelf from real, soil-based organic produce.
As a result of the fact that many of its by-products are negative external costs, which are not included in the price of its products, such the use and disposal of enormous amounts of plastic, hydroponic production is significantly cheaper and is replacing real, soil-grown organic produce.
It is a hostile corporate takeover of organic food and is eliminating the availability of real organic produce across the United States.
The essence of organic farming is all about the soil, and hydroponics completely avoids using the soil.
WHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD IS HYDROPONICS ALLOWED IN ORGANIC?
Nowhere, only in the U.S.
In fact, organic hydroponic produce that is grown in Holland or Mexico, for example, cannot be sold in the EU or Mexico, respectively, as organic. Instead, it is grown in these foreign countries and exported specifically for the U.S. market.
WHY IS HYDROPONICS ALLOWED IN THE U.S.?
Because corporate lobbyists are very powerful in the U.S, and they used their influence to have the rules bent or broken in their favor.
For many years, during the early days of the USDA’s National Organic Program, hydroponics were prohibited until a small but influential group of very large hydroponic producers were able to lobby their way in to getting the USDA to allow hydroponics.
WHY SHOULD CONSUMERS CARE ABOUT WHETHER THEIR TOMATOES ARE GROWN IN THE SOIL OR GROWN IN WATER?
Nutrition begins and ends with the soil. Period.
While there are no 3rd-party trials that measure the nutritional differences of, for example, organic hydroponic tomatoes vs. soil-grown organic tomatoes, there is no possibility that they could have the same nutrition. These are two entirely different growing methods, and the water in which hydroponic plants are grown do not have the billions of microbes, fungi and rhizomes found in soil — many of which we cannot even identify or measure. Our own human gut microbial community, itself composed of trillions of microbes found in our intestines, co-evolved with soil, over eons, as complementary systems.
Additionally, given that flavor and smell are an indications of nutritional quality, if you compare a soil-grown organic blueberry from King Grove Organic Farm vs. a hydroponic organic blueberry at the supermarket, you will be stunned at the difference in taste. It is night and day.
Lastly, most organic consumers have the expectation that their organic produce is grown in the soil, not in buckets of water, drip fed nutrition.
HOW DOES THE ALLOWANCE OF HYDROPONICS IN ORGANIC IMPACT FARMERS?
It is decimating the livelihoods of small soil-based organic farmers because they are forced to compete on an unlevel playing field.
Hydroponic organic farmers can operate at much greater scale and do not have to manage the complexities of the soil. As a result, many of these small soil-based family farmers are being pushed out of business, resulting in fewer soil-based organic farms capturing carbon from the environment.
IF SOIL-BASED ORGANIC FARMERS ARE BEING DRIVEN OUT OF BUSINESS, HOW WILL THIS IMPACT CONSUMERS AT THE GROCERY STORE?
As each day passes, organic hydroponics continue to proliferate — and with severe consequences.
Organic hydroponics are taking over organic berries and tomatoes, and they are moving heavily into peppers, cucumbers, herbs and greens.
Consumers are quickly, comprehensively and permanently losing the ability to eat soil-grown organic fruits and vegetables, and if something isn’t done, we may soon have no choice but to eat hydroponic produce as the only alternative to chemical agriculture.
DOES THE USDA REQUIRE THAT ORGANIC HYDROPONIC FRUITS AND VEGETABLES BE LABELED AS “HYDROPONIC?”
No.
SO, HOW DO CONSUMERS KNOW IF THEY ARE BUYING ORGANIC HYDROPONIC OR ORGANIC SOIL-GROWN PRODUCE?
It is challenging.
The two add-on organic labels — Real Organic Project and Regenerative Organic Certified® — both prohibit the use of hydroponics. So, look for those two certifications.
The most comprehensive directory of soil-based organic fruit and vegetable growers can be found at the Real Organic Project’s website.
Beware: If you do your own independent research and look at various websites, you may see pretty pictures of green farms and many mentions of soil. However, the farmers at the Real Organic Project are the experts, and they know better than anyone what is legitimate soil-grown organic and what is not.
Furthermore, Real Organic Project will certify any farm for free.
DO ALL ORGANIC CERTIFIERS CERTIFY OPERATIONS AS HYDROPONIC?
No. There is a profound, and growing, split among the certifiers of organic produce. Some organic certifiers believe that hydroponics is a violation of the organic rules, and in defiance of the USDA, they refuse to certify hydroponic operations as organic. In fact, the certifiers of approximately 1/3rd of the USDA certified farms in the U.S. refuse to allow hydroponics as organic.
Additionally, organic watchdog group OrganicEye recently rated all organic certifiers, and the ones that certify hydroponic operations were all labeled as “ethically-challenged” by the organization.
(Image above is sourced from OrganicEye)
WHAT ELSE SHOULD CONSUMERS KNOW?
Hydroponics in organic is one of the most serious threats to the long-term survival of the organic industry and the availability of real organic food, and consumers should support brands and farms that are Real Organic Project and Regenerative Organic Certified® as much as possible.
Lastly, the CBS affiliate in Orlando, Florida did a fantastic segment on the hydroponics in organic controversy.
Please click HERE to watch the CBS clip.
