A few days ago, I went to a talk given by Erica Hernandez, a PhD student conducting research in the area of hydroponic agriculture. Erica talked a lot about the different methods of hydroponics and the pros and cons of each, usually involving a progression of amount of water, electricity, and labor required. She also mentioned how different levels of lighting can effect the way plants grow in greenhouses and how hydroponics tries to correct that. I did not go to house dinner that night, so I did not get to try some hydroponically grown lettuce, but everyone remarked that it tasted the same.

The field of hydroponics is groundbreaking in that it allows barren land to become hubs of agriculture. Since the environment is completely artificial, it doesn’t matter where the crops are being grown. This is a huge innovation for places like Africa and the Middle East, where the land is less fertile and, thus, more time and labor must be spent on agriculture. If hydroponic greenhouses are implemented in these areas, it will be easier to grow crops and those societies can develop further into modern times. For all the charity work that can be done to better the lives of people in poor situations partially due to geography, hydroponics look to be the key to aiding these areas in joining the first world in terms of quality of life.