I mean, I'm all for it. This could mean that there will be less use of pesticides as it's in a more controlled environment. And it's also very space efficient, which allows you to grow much more. And homegrowers can still go to markets, supermarkets that sell fresh produce (from grown in dirt - we already have those now here) and so on. But to top it off, it might become more affordable to people. I know people who struggle putting a meal on the table and this (in the long run) might help keep prices at a reasonable cost.
I do hear that produce can taste different in hydroponics compared to grown in the ground, but one could always grow something at home. Even the smallest appartments are usually able to grow something
Today's hydroponics compared to those seen decades ago when it started as a fad of " yes look it's winter and we can grow you tomatoes " cardboard - flavorless - tough tomatoes.... advances have changed the lights we use, even the selection of fertilizers and types have changed.
If you supply the proper nutrient and trace minerals the flavors will remain relatively the same yes some local areas because of higher amounts of one mineral versus another can and will affect flavors today's available blends duplicate the make up of what the plants need , yes some plants do need slightly different mix but this is where the knowledge of specific plants themselves helps dictate the blends of nutrients. One major key factor the does and can affect flavors, nutrient, vitamin content, and ant-oxidants is the light itself. as groweri can vary my lights slightly to boost a characteristic of the plant that will affect flavors to minor degree as example many plants when they get an extra exposure to 380 nano-meter ( uv spectrum) will have an increase in anti oxidants, Tomatoes grown in the higher blue spectrum light 460nm to 500nm show an increase of vitamin C.
Cathy yes sad to say this is the route many areas will have to take to grow enough in the very near future we as a race have over run and developed most of the most viable land that can grow on and within 30 years or less the population growth will force drastic changes in how and where we grow. The land that is available in many areas is so contaminated even the plants grown can become toxic a main point it like around the man made mountains of waste tailing from ww2 and the boom after to get tin nickle copper and other ores from ground, the run off from these tailing affect causing vast areas of land unsuitable for use even to build on.
One advantage of hydroponics is less impact on water need one study i saw some times ago was suggesting as much as 40% of the water used to irrigate crops ends up as run off other studies say its even higher. Less run off mean less pollutants from over fertilization and pesticides so that's another plus for hydroponics. this also reduces the amount of fertilizer needed in one other way because its already in soluble state plants can access to use without waste of energy. additionally hydroponics can reduce the contamination of soil and plants from various bacteria such as e-coli, norovirus , Salmonella , Listeria , and Cyclospora from contaminated irrigation water source with traces of improperly composted manure, irrigation water containing untreated sewage or manure,wash water and medical contaminates, think of the number of recalls over recent years for some of these bacteria in food.
Disadvantage reliant on more artificial light sources such as high end LED's which require mining of materials to make, food safe materials to use to hold nutrient and plant as the liquid is cycled , increases electrical demand which needs to be considered as a factor when compared region by region how much is grown local and how much is shipped in and how far to calculate carbon foot print and impact versus how much grown local and electrical use and local transport for foot print. I can tell you personally for what i grow and the amount of area i use in house i can grow at a lower cost even adjusting for my cost to set up system , electrical cost and my time then i can buy in stores here, added disadvantage is depending on how much you want to grow and what you want to grow some plants can take up a larger area and ability to vary light to duplicate season to trigger bloom and ripening of fruits on plant and some types of plants take extensive amount of time to grow.
We do need to utilize the growing space more intensive in natural growing and even in hydroponics then we currently do, some areas you already see balcony areas conbnverted to soil gardens and to hydroponics and sides of building converted to living walls using both growing methods, we need to reduce the hard heat absorbent surfaces to those with more productive heat reducing living walls and crops and growing areas in open section of cities have been proven to reduce heat and carbon foot print, hydroponics just tend to have faster turn around time on harvest-able crops then do soil grown plants because water and usable nutrients are there for fast easy use so a good reason why you will more and more " living walls " built with hydroponics
