Hello and welcome to the nutrition divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling

fabulous. I'm Monica Reinagle and I'm so glad you've tuned in today. I got a great question from Gina this week who wrote

We have a new hydroponic veggie grower in town. How do they compare nutritionally to soil-grown veggies?

Hydroponics is a sort of high-tech farming.

Instead of waiting until the right time of year and planting your seeds in the dirt adding fertilizer hoping for enough

rain but not too much and combating whatever pests diseases and or poachers might

invade your fields hydroponic plants are nurtured indoors

under grow lights in a sterile medium that holds water and nutrients close to the

plant roots with precisely controlled temperature and humidity.

Because the plants aren't subject to the unpredictable depredations of nature, there's a lot

less crop loss.

Farmers don't have to worry about drought and hailstorms. They need a lot fewer pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and so on. And because they can artificially control the length of the day and the air temperature,

hydroponic farmers are also effectively freed from the constraints of the traditional growing seasons.

They can grow tomatoes in January, and spinach in July if they want to.

Then again, hydroponic farmers also have to pay a utility bill instead of getting most of their sunlight and water for free.

Hydroponics can also be grown. getting most of their sunlight and water for free.

Hydroponics can also be grown just about anywhere, and that means that Alaskans can enjoy

fresh local lettuce instead of paying for it to be flown in from the lower 48.

And many people argue that hydroponic cultivation is a more sustainable form of agriculture

and that it consumes less water, space, and energy.

The fact that hydroponic vegetables never come into contact with the soil

also means that we don't need to worry about them absorbing heavy metals from the soil or being contaminated by disease

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