Artificial food production with Hydroponics and Aquaponics

I have been gardening for 3 years and then spent my time doing professional farming for a full decade now and I have understood the soil and will keep improving my understanding of soil and how it works to support all life. How complex the interactions are among the trillions of micro-organisms in the soil and how many varieties of compounds are produced in the soil daily.

I visited a research center recently where they are growing vegetables using a nutrient solution made of 13 nutrients including Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium Calcium Magnesium Zinc Boron and so on in measured quantities and mixing it in water and irrigating the plants 4 times a day using a well know method in agriculture called Fertigation. I was told that this is the standard method used in India for hydroponics. Aquaponics has just one key difference, fish waste is used to fertilize water along with some nutrients. After listening to all the work that is being done for two hours, I asked a very simple question.

This is about the function of Cobalt in human body => Cobalt is a trace element and the co-factor in vitamin B12 (cynacobalamin), its only known use in humans. Cobalt is only needed in ppm- a tiny speck that fits on a pinhead. Yet, without cobalt in B12, your body cannot make adequate red blood cells, and red cells it makes are swollen, enlarged and weakly attract oxygen. Without B12, nerves have less ability to transmit energy, causing numbness. Without a microgram of cobalt, DNA replication in to messenger RNA slows, and key protein synthesis can slow, even halt. Without a speck of one element called Cobalt, key pineal and pituitary hormones aren’t made. Without Cobalt, you are a corpse.

Then I asked => How do you add Cobalt to your medium??. The person doing the work of growing plants using hydroponics said they do not add Cobalt. Then I said, what about key trace elements Copper, Silicon, Manganese, Chromium, Vanadium, Nickel, Selenium, Iodine and so on.. He said he does not add any of these either. I felt that we have diluted the definition of growing food using deep organic methods by using half-baked knowledge of what soil really does to support all life on the planet.

Then I asked => How is your nutrient concoction used in hydroponics complete. ?? How can we even imagine creating a method to grow food that matches the power of Soil. ?? There was no answer from him and after some thinking, he said that he will never eat this food as he is scared that if he does not eat soil grown food, key minerals will be missing from his body and he will soon grow weak and will not be able to fight any disease and many key functions in his body will be disrupted by eating hydroponic and aquaponic grown food.

This is the answer you need to decide about whether you want to eat soil grown or artificial medium grown food. Decide for yourself what you choose and live with the consequences of your decision.

Thank you, Shankar — Farmer, Teacher and Author @ Mapletree Farm.