Modern greenhouses that supply the mass market are producing less and less naturally. This makes it all the more important that organic methods offer an alternative for conscious consumers.
How often have I heard that?
"Fertile soil is the basis of all life."
"No future without soil"
Today's vegetable gardeners can only laugh about it! They have long since stopped needing soil to harvest abundant crops of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and so on. The plants grow in a sterile medium such as rock wool, are fed by an irrigation computer that gives them exactly the right amount of artificial fertilizer, and harmful insects are kept in check by beneficial insects. Pesticides are hardly needed in modern greenhouses. This is why many conventional vegetable growers boldly claim that their produce is "actually organic" and that just because the plants do not grow in the ground, they are not certified organic.
This claim is completely false, because even if gardeners do not spray at all, their produce is still far from organic, as they use mineral fertilizers. This is very energy-intensive to produce and is the main reason why conventional agriculture (including vegetable growing) has a comparatively poor carbon footprint.
Interestingly, it is also not true that organic plants have to grow in soil! The EU organic regulation does not clearly prohibit soilless cultivation. Sweden, Finland and Denmark consider soilless organic farming with "natural" substrates to be permissible, reported the European organic farming association IFOAM EU in 2012. "In greenhouses, tomatoes are only cultivated in substrate containers or bags that are fertilized with a nutrient solution - they are marketed as organic tomatoes," criticizes the German organic farming association Naturland.
In Austria there are "a few blueberry and lemon producers" who grow without soil but are still officially organic, Bio-Austria informed me. They were certified organic before the Ministry of Health (!) issued a decree (!) clearly stating that substrate cultivation is fundamentally not organic. Only young plants, herbs, chicory and ornamental plants do not necessarily have to grow in soil and still remain "organic". However, the decree does not apply to imported organic products.
Once again, EU organic is proving to be a half-hearted compromise. If you want more, you have to look out for additional quality seals. All self-respecting organic farming associations require cultivation in the soil. However, the details and exemptions differ.
But what's so bad about gardening without soil?
Without contact with the ground, no fertilizers or pollutants can enter the soil. Water can be saved thanks to a closed cycle. After the season, everything can be easily disinfected so that hardly any pesticides are needed. Organic gardeners, on the other hand, have to spray the entire soil with hot steam for hours if necessary, which costs a relatively large amount of energy. Although the rock wool used by "modern" gardeners is also energy-intensive to produce, it is not a must; in a large Bavarian greenhouse that I visited, tomato and bell pepper plants are grown on coconut fibers.
From an environmental point of view, I think there is hardly anything to be said against mechanized food production without soil. If you could also "save" the plants so that the fruit grows directly in the "test tube", it would be even more efficient and environmentally friendly.
But do we want to eat vegetables from the retort?
I am glad that there is still some reasonably naturally produced food available to buy. I don't think that the cultivation of rock wool or coconut fibers is likely to have side effects on health, but I don't rule them out either. Humans are still far too complex for scientists' simulations. This means that we are still only learning through trial and error. Margarine was long considered harmless or even healthier than butter, then suddenly the effects of trans fats, which were created when the oil was hardened, were noticed (until the manufacturers changed their processes as a result). I therefore believe that it is rationally justifiable to give preference to food that the human body has been designed to eat for millions of years: food that has grown "normally" in the soil. And that should be the least the consumer can expect from organic products!
About the author Mario SedlakBorn in Vienna in 1975, graduated in Technical Mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology in 2000, technical expert in the electricity industry since 2008
