The lousy economy over the past few years boasts a silver lining in the temperate Floridian climate where I live. Some folks who lost their jobs have started small farms or expanded existing ones, many of them growing local, organic produce.
While this is a fantastic turn of events, unfortunately, some of these farms have chosen to grow organic hydroponics instead of soil based produce.
Why do I use the word “unfortunately” and “organic” in the same sentence, you may ask?
The reason is because organic hydroponic produce produces big, watery fruit that is very low in mineral content. In a nutshell, organic hydroponics is not nutrient dense food and is basically a waste of money!
The essential problem with hydroponic farming arises through its use of a mineral based solution to grow and nourish the plants instead of soil. Some hydroponic operations even rely on artificial lighting. Proponents of organic hydroponics claim that their produce is just as good as organic produce grown in soil. Such claims are extremely short sighted. To actually assume that an artificial growing environment could ever come close to the perfection of nature is just plain silly!
No mineral solution can ever take the place of black, worm filled, organic soil that is carefully tended and worked by the farmer season after season.
Organic Hydroponics Test Poor Nutritionally
The proof that organic hydroponic produce is relatively nutritionless can be easily and quickly measured with an instrument called a refractometer. Nutritional measurement is performed by squeezing a couple of drops of liquid from the produce to be tested onto the prism of the refractometer and reading the results. The juice should be from the part of the plant that you would actually eat, not the stem or the roots, for example.
The refractometer (click here for a picture of one) measures the amount of carbohydrate and dissolved minerals in the juice. Sweeter, riper produce will therefore test higher brix than unripe produce. Calcium is one of the minerals that increases substantially in high brix produce. The minerals in high brix produce are readily and easily assimilated when eaten because they are in naturally chelated form. This means they are attached to amino acids and are biologically active unlike the same minerals found in a rock, for example.
High Brix Produce Tastes Better
Animals instinctively prefer high brix plants. Cows given a choice of hay will choose the one with higher brix. Cows which graze on high brix grass will produce more nutrient dense milk, butter, and cream too!
Given a choice, humans will choose high brix produce as well because the taste is so much better! Taste will always tell you if the produce is high brix or not. Ever had tomato sauce made from 15 brix tomatoes? It is an experience you will never forget! Organic hydroponic tomatoes generally test at a measly 2 or 3.
Pathetic indeed for the organic price premium you pay per pound!
High Brix Produce Lasts a Long Time Without Rotting
High brix produce is resistant to insects, disease and rot. Have you ever noticed how that box of organic hydroponic strawberries from the store looked so beautiful on the shelf but a mere 2 days later, the berries have developed large spots of rot that have to be cut away?
Produce that rots quickly is indicative of low nutrition, poor quality fruit – organic or not!
What to Choose? (Hint: NOT Organic Hydroponics)
Even local produce grown in soil using conventional means will generally beat out organic hydroponics when measured for mineral content. This is why I tell folks to seek out local produce at farmer’s markets that is grown in dirt, not hydroponically. Buying at farmers’ markets is a great way to seek out quality produce as you can ask the farmer directly how the produce was grown.
Ultimately, the highest brix produce I’ve ever come across is from people’s personal gardens. Working the soil on a small, personal patch of ground yourself is an activity that consistently produces spectacular results. My Mother-in-Law in Australia has a small garden that has the thickest layer of worm filled, black dirt I’ve ever seen. She has been working this soil with compost and other natural fertilizers for over 10 years. There is no doubt that the produce she grows in this dirt is more nutritious and higher brix than any organic produce to be found at the store!
So, actively seek out high brix produce, not just organic and especially not organic hydroponics. Your taste buds and your wallet will thank you.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
Weston A. Price Foundation
4 Steps to Keep Monsanto OUT of Your Garden!
Heirloom vs Hybrid Produce
Hydroponic Invasion of USDA Organic
I would like to know what is meant by the word brix?
Brix is the measuring of the dissolved sugar content in a liquid. For juices from fruits and veggies, a high brix correlates strongly with higher amounts of minerals and vitamins as well.
Another thing to know is that there is a loophole in the FDA Organic regulations with hydroponics. It allows glyphosate to be used in the medium that the nutritionally deficient hydroponic food are grown with. What a sad shame. We have destroyed our own food system. We eat food that is no longer food, and clamp is further tightened on private growers and producers of actual whole food farms. I have to drive 2.5 hours away to a farm to find real non-GMO, organic produce and grass fed pasture raised meats. This government takeover of our food, in order to fund big pharma, among others must be stopped or my children will have children in a toxic disease ridden world.
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your information! I live in Canada and would really like to grow some produce during the winter. Do you know of a mineral solution you can add to the water to increase the nutrition on the plants? Thank you !!
Nothing replaces nutrient rich soil for plants unfortunately just like no supplement pill is going to take the place of quality food in the human diet.
Sarah, I am new to hydroponics. I am just about setting up a greenhouse for this purpose and also to understand if this is something I can pursue commercially. For this, any information would help me a lot. However, reading your article, I am not sure if this is well thought through. Just common sense tells me that control over the mineral content and other plant needs in the soil (organic or not) is very difficult. Sometimes, you may be lucky to get fertile soil, sometimes not. Even the kind of earthworms make a difference to soil fertility. So, I cannot understand the argument that (organically) soil grown vegetables are better. It may be better in some cases and other cases it may be not.
Having said that, information on hydroponics is sketchy and we do not seem to have some kind of ‘world standard’ on how such farming needs to be conducted. So, here to, the farmer’s knowledge is accumulated ‘on-the-job’. Like somebody said earlier, more effort in this direction can only help towards getting the right nutritional produce. Is this the best way to farm? I don’t think we know the answer yet.
Thanks Sarah – I have spent 27 years in the Hydroponic industry and I struggle with the whole nutritional aspect. Here in Australia we grow veggies in the backyards in natural sunlight with less effort and without pesticides etc. But the nutrients and the hybridisation of plant varieties are the missing pieces in the puzzle for Hydroponic growers. Using an original seed provides a plant base that is capable of greater taste and nutrition. Most Organic soil grower already use good seeds. I am educating Hydroponic growers to use better seed.
Hydroponics has the potential to be higher in nutrients because the solution is controlled. So far we have used a nutritionist with our organic chemist to brew (like a beer) an organic micro-organism rich solution with over 90 elements including elements missing from our food chain. So my job is over the next decade is to help people see that hydroponics doesn’t have to have the simplest solution, it can actually have all the elements that a good organic system has with all the benefits of Hydroponics like easier growing. I expect that many people will keep growing in soil. My goal is to make every home capable of producing veggies that are so high in nutrients that they could qualify as superfoods. So far, these nutrients are only available locally from my store and I am struggling to make it fast enough. Our plant testing is done on a farm with 130,000 plants which supply 75% of their produce to gourmet restaurants, some with celebrity chefs. So I will blame the Hydroponic industry for being young and inexperienced (and cannabis crazed in the US and Canada). They are missing the point. We all have to eat! And there is the potential for the best produce to grow in every home in Hydroponics. I hope more people develop solutions like we have and help show the way back to wellness and taste.
Driscolls is not grown hydroponically – they grow in containers. With climate change and water being scarce, aquaponics and hydroponics offer an excellent solution to feed people, We grow both ways and when we do a taste test, people cannot tell the difference. We do both organically and do not use chemicals. I think your article is misleading and not entirely based on facts.
Umm, Driscoll’s is playing semantics with the “container grown” lingo. I NEVER buy anything grown by Driscoll’s as it rots quickly and is basically tasteless.
While I agree that the USDA has bastardized the Organic label. Hydroponic, or aquaponic CAN produce a better, more tasteful and nutritious fruits or vegetables and be better for the environment under the right management. Driscoll’s strawberries are terrible, of course that is because they pick too early, select varieties based on shelflife, and ship it across the country.
Hello Sarah, hope everything is going well, I was reading through your article and comments and wanted to throw what I know and my point of view regarding this matter.
Going back to your reply in Feb/2018 – In a way we aren’t too far from a dystopic world. The two main resources needed for gardening or farming are at stake: land and water. It is estimated that at the current rate of consumption, there’s only 60 years of topsoil left, and that out of 70% of water in earth, only 3% is freshwater, out of that 2% is unavailable to us (either stored underground or frozen) and that leaves us with 1% available, and yes, agriculture is the main source of water consumption.
And while there is still soil left and we could argue to engage only in organic to provide the soil with carbon for the benefit of microrganisms and make a better world, we would also need to take into account water and world population. Organic and conventional agriculture use up the same amount of water, although in some cases organic has reported to use less. This counteracts with the fact that organic farming yields 20-30% less than conventional farming. It is important to note that about 70% of land is currently being used for agriculture. With an inevitable rise of world population, relying soley organic to feed the world would result in more need of land and water. Doesn’t seem very sustainable when looking at it from this point of view. If we keep doing through conventional agriculture, the demand for food would force farmers to over fertilize with synthetic fertilizers (irresponsible use) resulting in severe damage of soil to the point it would be useless.
Hydroponics, while not your preference helps by reducing between 80-90% of water used in conventional/organic agriculture and provides even more yields per sq meter (thanks to techniques like vertical farming). This results in less use of water and land and higher yields for a growing population. From your comment regarding nutrition I can tell you for sure that organic is not superior to hydroponics. As I read somewhere in this thread, it really depends on the solution or nutrition program. Some cases organic produce may have higher nutritional levels while in others hydroponics would. Again it really depends on the solution/fertilizer program you are applying.
Going organic because of its all natural proposal is not bad at all, but at what cost? This would mean more water use, more land use and less production paving a gray path for future generations, same result would be if we only engage in inorganic applications, eventually. While not a final solution I believe engaging in hydroponics will provide us with time, time to find a way to desalinate water in more efficient and cheaper ways available to everyone, time to come up with a better proposal for farming, time for our soil to regenerate. We need to understand there is no plan B, no planet to run to. And if there’s any I’m very sure that due to conditions, hydroponics would be used, so getting familiar and caring for this method makes sense.
Finally growing at home (outdoor or indoor) (organic or inorganic) may give the perception we are saving water or being sustainable but if you scale that for the sake of the example to 100,000 households around the nation, the amount of water used vs 100,000 households engaged in hydroponics would be substantial.
Yes, you could argue that’s not “real food” due to led lights and controlled environment but I think we can’t complain when the objective is to rebuild our planet, it think it’s more than worth it.
I’m not against hydroponics if someone wants to grow it or eat it …. just letting people know that it isn’t very nutritious compared to soil grown produce and it certainly should NEVER be labeled organic! No wonder the REAL ORGANICS label is coming to counter the flawed USDA Organic label which has come to mean almost nothing anymore.
Brix is generally a measure of sweetness, which just like salt, has the benefit of bringing out the flavours of whatever food its present. It is present in high and low levels in both soil and hydroponically grown vegetables with the main deciding factor in the outcome being the amount of effort and care that went into producing them. You need to get your hydroponically grown vegetables from someone that knows what they’re doing as it sounds like the ones you got valued size over quality.
I’ve grown hydroponically in my greenhouse for nearly five years and the flavour of my beef and plum tomatoes is far greater than anything that I ever got from my local organic shops (as good as they are) and the yield is far greater than I got from soil. I used my refractometer I had for my fish tank and I’m getting between 5 and 7. Also a quick Google search will show you there have been countless studies comparing the nutritional differences, or lack there of, between soil and hydroponically grown food all over the world. The results all say there is little to no noticeable variation between the two. Not sure why you’ve adopted this alarmist tone but it’s certainly not based in fact.
Yes, unfortunately hydroponic growers are faking their brix readings with sugars. I’ve head soil based farmers complaining about this over the last few years.
Fortunately, hydroponic growers can’t fake the low quality of their produce because it rots and molds so fast in comparison to quality produce grown in soil.
Consumers are wising up! I won’t go near any produce with the name Driscoll’s (a huge hydroponic grower) on it or any company affiliated with them.
protectedcroppingaustralia.com/?p=632
Has some interestig points