News Article:
By: Abby Harveson Feature Writer 4/18/23 Through the Agronomy class in the Agriculture department, students learn about how to grow plants without the use of soil. Instead, they rely on water to house the plants. Alan Held, the teacher of the class, further describes the purpose for this method of crop growth.
“Using soil isn’t bad; we are just running out of it. We look at how our population has grown and we have to house those people someway, and housing gobbles up productive farmland. We must find new ways to produce food because all of these people need to eat,” Held explains. Inside the specified room, two different systems lie: the hydroponic and the aquaponic system. The Hydroponic system is a white plastic machine standing straight up and down with many holes throughout the inside. Each hole hosts a different germinated seed, which later grows into its own plant. Throughout the open space inside the contraption water, nutrients flow through, and a pH test frequently occurs in order to keep balance. On the other hand, the aquaponics system includes several fish tanks with plenty of fish residents connected to float beds. The float beds are tubs of water with styrofoam sheets with holes in them that stay on the top. The fish’s waste flows through the system and provides an adequate amount of supplements for the plants. Held further talks about how hydro and aquaponics is our very possible future way of producing food. “We will have to look into ways of growing these things inside buildings or on top of businesses or schools. Restaurants are doing this now to get fresh lettuce, basil, or chives into their food,” Held says. So far the class has produced around seven different varieties of lettuce as well as basil. After a few weeks, the students harvest the lettuce and deliver it to the cafeteria for use during school lunch. Though they could produce other plants such as tomatoes and peppers, lettuce grows the fastest and is needed the most in the school’s kitchen. |
Senior Jessica Baer, both a student of the Agronomy class and consumer of the cafeteria shares her experience.
“I like eating the lettuce in the cafeteria,” Baer exclaims. Some may recoil by the thought of eating food that relies on the fecal matter of other animals. However, Held argues about what other crops are fueled from. “The nutrients used and the fish’s waste are nothing different than a farmer going out and fertilizing a crop,” Held compares. |