How to end World Hunger with Hydroponics

There’s been a lot of talk about using hydroponics gardening to boost food production and take care of more of the world’s hungry poor, but how does this kind of process really go into effect? People all over the world, including public officials, charity groups and industry experts, are all talking about the best ways to improve not only food production but the delivery of food to a wide variety of areas including ‘food deserts’ where for one reason or another, communities lack the basic nutrition they need to thrive.

One key way that hydroponics helps in the fight against world hunger is that it promotes food production at the source, or in other words, where it is needed. This inherently changes the equation in terms of the need for food shipping, which is one of the biggest single limitations on how big agrobusiness can feed a very distributed world. It’s this principle that, for many, is at the core of the hydroponics philosophy where green foods are grown right in the kitchen and travel a very short distance to the table.

Although many may see this hydroponics philosophy as pretty simple, those who have experience in dealing with hunger around the world will often point out that there are other challenges involved in promoting these kinds of technologies. One is the idea that some of the most malnourished areas do not have the resources to buy equipment, and may even lack the basic education to use some of the more complex systems available. This is where some of the best aid organizations have overcome very similar kinds of problems by subsidizing basic equipment and by sending experts and out into the field to teach communities the skills involved in using key technologies to their advantage. With hydroponics, this would likely mean designing a very basic and easy to install system, and using volunteers to set up and demonstrate these systems in the target communities. With this kind of method, it’s possible that indoor and greenhouse gardening can go a long way towards solving some of the worst problems that we deal with around the world in terms of nutrition and food sourcing.