By Amy Almsteier Terra Tech Director. Our nation’s current agricultural system is severely broken and doing more harm than we realize to our bodies and the planet. Conventional large-scale agriculture works in direct resistance to nature by adhering temporarily effective chemical bandages and altering the genetics of plant and animal species to “solve” natural problems of cultivation. In reality the problems farmers face are nature’s way of screaming for our attention to fix this system before it is too late. Antibiotic resistant “super-bugs”, climate change, the obesity epidemic, and increasingly dangerous forms of food-borne illness such as e.Coli 0157:H7 are all current results of society’s poor choices in food cultivation. If these are simply early warning signs of what’s to come, our future may hold very grim consequences.
Big-Ag has used it’s financial muscle to introduce genetically-modified organisms, or GMO’s into our food system with very little research regarding potentially dangerous consequences. Indigenous species always suffer as a result of tampering with their eco-systems, and since the introduction of the first GMO’s approximately 30 years ago there has been an inexplicable rise in instances of food allergies, gluten-intolerance, and autism. GMO crops pollute neighboring organic fields and Big-Ag is constantly lobbying against labeling in an effort to stomp on the consumer’s right to choose what goes on their plates. Government contributes to the problem by granting giant subsidies to these toxic “food” factories. They claim they are “feeding the world” but many researchers agree that medium-scale, local farms are the real solution to the world’s food scarcity woes. 
The innovation and technology hydroponics offers can assist in redeveloping the way the world feeds it’s population. Currently, food production is done thousands of miles from the consumer, and often imported from outside of our country’s borders where standards can be very lax. Indoor greenhouse growing systems, like those manufactured by Terra Tech, can be utilized to grow in any climate or on rooftops in urban settings drastically cutting emissions that result from transportation. Indoor agriculture offers controlled-atmosphere growing that eliminates many of the problems conventional agriculture faces, including drought and desertification. Imagine having the capability to purchase locally grown herbs and micro-greens mid-winter in Wisconsin? Additionally this type of cultivation drastically reduces risk of food borne illness, eliminates the dangers of unintended cross-pollination with GMO’s, and maximizes efficiency in terms of water and energy use. The resulting produce is safer for human consumption, has a smaller carbon footprint, and offers consumers a fresher product that retains vital nutrients, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals essential to good health.
