Karin Kloosterman, ecology journalist, and founder of Flux and the eco-blog Green Prophet has spent much of her adult life studying and seeking solutions to environmental problems. She decided to participate in one of those solutions by founding Flux, an advanced system of growing food hydroponically. Flux offers solutions that may make food insecurity a thing of the past.
Kloosterman determined that conventional farming is destroying our planet. Applying pesticides to plants leads insects to outsmart the pesticide, then leading to stronger pesticides that seep into the earth and wreak havoc on ecosystems. The soil then dies and we apply fertilizers that end up in our drinking water, leading to a buildup of these substances in our bodies, causing soaring cancer rates. Aside from being able to bypass this disastrous cycle, hydroponics is a very efficient way of growing food. And it allows far more control over the conditions in which the food is grown.
Plants don't thrive in plain water, they require nutrients that are easily added in the hydroponic system. Furthermore, since hydroponic food is grown in greenhouses, it's easy to naturally eliminate pests, which thereby obviates the need for pesticides. And food can be grown all year around, in any climate.
The Flux system, complete with an app, simplifies the hydroponic food growing process, enabling the grower to get the exact chemistry right for every different kind of crop, so there's no waste and no guess-work.
Flux's mission is to allow anyone to grow food, even in the most dire and hungry parts of the world. Read more about it here: http://www.jpost.com/Metro/Hope-for-a-hungry-planet-476268
Off to water my own plants, till next time!
J
