Hydro culture The world is in the middle of a food crisis. Opinions differ as to its severity, but most accept that the crisis is real and potentially poses a major threat to the health and food supply of a large proportion of the global population. The roots of the crisis are diverse, but among them are two primary factors. The first of these is changing weather pattems and extreme weather events. Simply put, a number of previously productive agricultural regions are no longer as fertile as they once were because of the weather. And seoond, many farmers have found that they can get a better return growing biofuels than raising crops. As a result, lange areas of valuable cropland are no longer being used for this end. Comventional agriculture is ill-suited to solve the food crisis, but hydro culture might be a potential solution. As its name suggests, hydro culture typrcally involves growing plants in nutrient-rich water rather than in soll Hydroponics is the most widely-known method of hydro culture. Some believe it has significant potential to reduce the impact of the food crists by allowing farmers to produce large quantities of food in a sustainable and cost-effective way. In a typical hydroponic system, crops are grown indoors in conitrolled environments. The plants grow in containers that are filled with water and nutrients that they need to thrive. These nutrients vary depending on the crop being grown but typically include nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, zinc, and copper, among other trace elements. A light source provides the energy the sun would usually deliver. In so-called static systems, the nutrient solution is changed or replaced either according to a schedule or when the plants requre it. In continuous flow systems, the nutrient solution flows constantly past the roots of the plants. Although it may seem like a technologically sophisticated form of agriculture, scientists have been experamenting with hydro culture sance at least 1627 . Early experiments showed that plants grow best when raised in water that is rich in various nutrients rather than in distilled water. By the early decades of the twentieth century, the concept of hydropotics was beconing more widely known and some commercial applications of the fechnology were even in place. These days, even NASA, the US govemment agency in charge of space missions, is researching hydroponics. Hydroponics offers a muber of benefits-over conventional agriculture. It happens indoors, 90 it does not require large areas of land. In fact, hydroponic farms can be located in industrial warehouses in or near large citses. This gives them another advantage over tradstional farms since they can be located much closer to the markets for their produce, reducung distribution and transportation costs for hydroponic farmers. The indoor location allows farmers to create controlled environments. Not only does this mean that erops are not affected by weather, it means that farmers can grow erops in regions where they would not normally thrive. For example, tropical wegetables can be grown in Canada. But hydroponic farms are not without their drawbacks. For one thing, some important food crops do not grow well hydroponically Most herbs and vegetables thrive, but important sources of nutrition like carrots, potatoes; and com are either not suitable or hard to grow. And so much space would be required to rase staple crops like rice and wheat cost-effectuvely that thear hydroponic cultrvation is not practical. Furthermore, most foods that grow well bydroponically are relatively low in protein, a vital nutrent for human health. A variation on hydroponics that solves some of these issues is aquapcaics. A basac aguaponics system is a hydroponics farm with a second layer. On top are plants growing hydroponically in nutrient-rich water. Below that is a tank of fish being raised as part of 2 fish farm? In traditional aquaculture, farmers must spend time and money cleaning the water in which the fish live; if they do not, the health of the fish will suffer as waste from the fish concentrates in the water. The clever part of aquaponics is that instead of having to filter and discard the fish waste, farmers can use it as the source of nutrients for the plants. By closing the system in this way. aquaponic farms can produce the same kinds of herbs, fruits, and vegetables as hydroponic farms, is well as high-quality protein from farm-raised fish. Jawaban Anda 40. The word severity in paragraph 1 most likely means a. Conversion b. Deployment c. Opportunity d. Seriousness