Hydroponics Are Not Organic
According to the Europeans, hydroponically grown food is not organic. Hydroponics is the production of crops using mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil.
Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only, or in an inert medium such as perlite, rockwool, or gravel.
There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to growing crops in this manner.
Advantages of Hydroponics
- Soil borne diseases are virtually eliminated.
- Weeds are virtually eliminated.
- Fewer pesticides and herbicides are required.
- Less water is required.
Disadvantages of Hydroponics
- Hydroponic crops are more expensive than soil grown crops.
- Crops lack the benefits of micro-organisms in the soil.
It is interesting that it is due to the lack of soil and the nutrients it provides, the EU believes that plants grown using hydroponics are not natural or organic.
The reason why hydroponics are not allowed in EU organic production is that organic farming is a system based on the soil, in particular that plant nutrition is based on the activities of living organisms in the soil. This was discovered by the early organic researchers to be the way plants receive their nutrients in natural ecosystems.
The Soil Association is interested in ensuring that farming is both sustainable and also produces healthy food. While you might be able to make a case that certain hydroponic systems are sustainable (would have to use no agro-chemicals, as that involves great use of oil), we believe that you lose out on the health side, and probably in a major way in the long term. Intensive non-organic farming can actually be likened to hydroponics, in that the soil is used simply as a substrate for the receipt of nutrients in solution, and soil biological activity is suppressed in such circumstances.
It’s fair enough that growing plants in a nutrient solution is not natural and goes against the organic practices of building up a healthy soil with living organisms which is naturally high in nutrients. However, hydroponics does have its place in areas where soil is too poor to grow crops or where there is insufficient water to do so.
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