08-25-2014, 09:39 AM
Virtually all the large scale vegetable production in Mexico is now hydroponics, so when you buy a pepper or head of lettuce that was grown in Mexico, it was probably hydroponic. Israel also has largely switched over to hydroponics as well, because it is much more water efficient. But hydroponics is not cheap to set up, so independent farmers usually stick to what they've been doing all along, while big farm corporations have the money or credit to pay for a switchover, or just create a new division. Hydroponics can be very dependent on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to control pests like whitefly that love a greenhouse environment, although it can be done organically. Aquaponics can also be done organically, but it has other issues too. Neither are a magic bullet for all crops in all places.
Those shreds of greenhouses scattered around Puna were not necessarily used for hydroponics, a lot of them were from people growing flowers and foliage for the florist industry, others were from people who tried other crops and failed, still others were on rented land and the greenhouses weren't worth moving at the end of the lease.
Farming is hard work, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and a lot of people think they can short cut their way around that reality, I think that ends up be the biggest reason a lot of naive people who think they can make it as farmers here end up quitting farming. Plus, farming in a place with virtually no soil is just alien to mainland transplants. My mother was a master organic gardener who just couldn't understand why we didn't have a big garden here, until I handed her a shovel and told her to try to dig a row, then she got it.
Carol
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Those shreds of greenhouses scattered around Puna were not necessarily used for hydroponics, a lot of them were from people growing flowers and foliage for the florist industry, others were from people who tried other crops and failed, still others were on rented land and the greenhouses weren't worth moving at the end of the lease.
Farming is hard work, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and a lot of people think they can short cut their way around that reality, I think that ends up be the biggest reason a lot of naive people who think they can make it as farmers here end up quitting farming. Plus, farming in a place with virtually no soil is just alien to mainland transplants. My mother was a master organic gardener who just couldn't understand why we didn't have a big garden here, until I handed her a shovel and told her to try to dig a row, then she got it.
Carol
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb