Federal Judge Sides With Hydroponic Farmers in ‘Organic’ Fight
modernfarmer.com
The legal battle over whether hydroponic farms can qualify for the certified organic label appears over for now: The soil-less growers will continue to qualify for the coveted—and profitable—designation, thanks to a new federal court ruling late last week. US District Judge Richard Seeborg on Friday ruled against a coalition, led by an advocacy group called the Center for Food Safety, that had asked the court to bar hydroponic farms from being certified organic by the US Department of Agriculture. The ruling, however, did not try to answer the question of whether such growers should be considered organic but only

It’s an interesting discussion here. I also think, for those who think it’s unfair that conventional to organic farmers need three years to allow the soil to recover but hydroponic farmers dont need to worry about this…are hydroponic farmers required to study the effect of the water they use in their system? Where they source it, how they dispose of it?

  • @AgreeableLandscape
    1•3 years ago

    for those who think it’s unfair that conventional to organic farmers need three years to allow the soil to recover but hydroponic farmers dont need to worry about this…

    How is this relevant to the health effects of the food?

    As for environmental impact, hydroponics don’t contribute to soil degradation and their fertilizers are in a closed system, so…

    • MetawishOP
      1•3 years ago

      Are you asking how soil is relevant to health effects of the food? unsure what you’re asking here…

      For the second part, right, it makes sense but where do they source their water? How do they manage that resource? If the point of organic certification is ensuring proper use of resources, mainly soil but can include other items, then have we investigated enough about hydroponics to make the assursion?

  • @Slatlun
    1•3 years ago

    I am honestly asking - are traditional Organic farmers required to do any testing or sourcing of their water (for watering)? Most farmers I know wouldn’t be able to change water sources if they wanted to.

    • MetawishOP
      1•3 years ago

      Okay I wasn’t sure about this either but the USDA does provide a PDF of steps to take to be certified and no where in the PDF I skimmed does it mention water as a major aspect to factor. Someone submitting their plan can include that information but it isn’t a critical decision-making aspect like soil is.

      It’s actually wild how focused on the soil organic farming is, so yeah I really can understand conventional farmers getting mad about hydroponics being able to get organic certification. But it just means that organic certification can be better. Seems like there are four types of certifications given based off the product sold…perhaps the USDA should look into a hydroponic specific certification that focuses on the water use in hydroponics.