Iceberg lettuce is the quintessential main ingredient for salads in the USA. In some places, romaine and red-leaf lettuces make their way into people's salad bowls as well. The real connoisseurs, however, enjoy the butterhead lettuces like the Bibb, Bost, and Buttercrunch varieties. These are usually available only on a seasonal basis, unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for shriveled, tasteless leaves that were shipped 1500 miles or more.

The salad crowd doesn’t adjust their taste buds according to the calendar, however, and the year-round availability of other forms of produce has created an expectation that whatever we want to eat will be on the store shelves. Unlike many forms of produce – oranges and apples, for example – lettuce doesn’t “keep” or travel very well and so the usual mechanisms of retaining some product for the winter months, or importing from warmer climes, isn’t very practical. One option for agricultural producers who would like to be able to market high-end lettuces in the cold months is to grow lettuce indoors, using a hydroponic or aeroponic system.

You may be interested to know that lettuces are the fourth largest hydroponic crops, coming in right behind peppers (tomatoes and cucumbers are in the top two spots). The overall hydroponic lettuce crop in the U.S. is relatively insignificant compared to what's grown conventionally in the field, but they are very much in demand – especially by restaurants and gourmands. You may recall "field-packed" lettuce that was offered in some supermarkets awhile back – full of dirt, full of bugs, requiring thorough washing before you even thought about eating it.

This isn't an issue with hydroponic lettuce, which is usually sold in plastic bags or rigid "clamshell" containers. In some high-end stores, some lettuce products are sold as "living lettuce," with the roots still attached. In any event, hydroponic lettuce is usually ready to eat, though many people like to give it a quick rinse and spin in the salad spinner before they serve it up.

We've discussed the advantages of indoor or greenhouse hydroponic agriculture before: primarily, it can be done year-round, and as long as growers take the proper steps, insect pests and plant diseases are usually not a problem, and it's possible to grow larger plants in a shorter amount of time. Furthermore, with the use of computers and the right software, much of the day-to-day maintenance of a hydroponic system can be automated.

Some varieties of lettuce are better for indoor and greenhouse cultivation than others. Iceberg lettuce is known as a "crisphead." This means that the leaves are very tight and the heads are dense, much like cabbage. When it comes to hydroponics, the butterhead lettuces mentioned above seem to do much better. (They’re called “butterheads” because the heads tend to be loose and the leaves have a texture similar to butter.) These are the gourmet greens that have long been popular in Europe and have been catching on in the U.S. in a big way.

So with all this demand, and with all the advantages of hydroponics, how come your local grocery store isn’t bursting with gourmet lettuce in January? Well, here's the bad news: while lettuces are somewhat hardy (they grow best when the weather is cooler, and a few can even survive freezing), they can be rather finicky – and getting them started can be a challenge. For one thing, lettuce seeds tend to be very, very small. This means planting them by hand can be a royal pain. There are some production approaches that mitigate this difficulty for hydroponic farmers. One is to buy what is known as "pelletized" lettuce seed. The advantage here is that each seed is contained within an inert material (like clay) that's about an eighth of an inch in diameter. The surrounding material retains moisture in case a watering cycle gets skipped, and the shape allows the use of an automatic seeder. The downside is that pelletized seed is more expensive than regular seed. Either way, there is a high cost – whether in the form of special seed or in the form of lots of labor expense.

As mentioned earlier, most problems associated with conventional outdoor cultivation are not issues when it comes to growing hydroponic lettuce. Indoor growing does come with its own hazards, however. Moth infestations, not usually an issue in outdoor farming where the birds will do the work of pest control, can be a major hassle for hydroponic lettuce growers. And the upside of hydroponics – the farmer can control everything – can also be the downside – the farmer HAS to control everything. Many of the techniques that individual-scale hydroponics growers use to keep their crops healthy and happy just don’t scale up well when the farm is twenty thousand square feet instead of a ten by ten greenhouse. But the real obstacles to this form of farming, just as much now as back when hydroponic farming was first conceived, are related to capital. It costs a lot of money to start a farm – but it costs even more to start a farm inside a building. (And if that building is located in suburban Seattle or the outskirts of New York City, rather than in Iowa, you can add a “0” to the end of the final pricetag.) Labor costs tend to be higher – hydroponic technicians expect a higher wage than farmhands. And the operational expenses – special seed, nutrient solutions, etc. – can quickly erase the potential gains from lower fertilizer or pesticide prices higher yield turns.

Those higher costs have been the principal reason that hydroponic production of lettuce and other farm products has not been an explosively growing industry, despite the many years of predictions that it would be. However, the increasing sophistication of American tastes for salads, increasing fuel costs for shipping of produce from traditionally agricultural areas, water issues, and the burgeoning desire of many city dwellers to get their food from close at hand rather than relying on an aging and expensive transportation network, may be changing that.

There is quite a debate going on regarding organic agriculture. One side says that small, localized organic farming is the future. The other side says that it will be impossible to feed the nine billion people expected to be inhabiting the planet by 2050 using organic methods.

What is interesting to note is that "organic" may not necessarily be any better for the planet.

Here's an analogy: many people eschew prescription drugs in favor of "natural herbs" largely because they believe that the former are dangerous and have too many side effects. Herbs are supposedly safer. What they don't realize is that prescription drugs are usually made from those same herbs. The difference is that a natural herb has several different chemical compounds in addition to the substance that has medicinal properties. When those herbs are processed into a pharmaceutical drug, that single substance is isolated and concentrated; with the herbal remedy, you’re getting everything that’s in the plant, good, indifferent, and bad alike. Using herbs without knowing what you're doing can lead to side effects just as serious as those from pharmaceuticals.

How does that relate to organic farming?

Prince Charles recently delivered a keynote address at the recent Future of Food Conference at Georgetown University. In his speech, he condemned conventional agriculture for its use of chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers.  However, as one critic pointed out, even the "natural" substances that organic farmers use can be toxic.

Case in point: copper sulfate, which is used as a fungicide. In small amounts, this is not particularly toxic. Unfortunately, this substance, like many other "organic" pesticides, is not nearly as effective at controlling insect pests as its chemical counterparts. What happens then is that the copper sulfate is used in larger amounts – at which point it does become harmful to the environment.

A similar mechanic operates in the case of "natural" fertilizers such as animal manure and nitrogen-fixing crops (legumes). As these are plowed under and into the soil, they can cause excess nitrogen to enter the groundwater – with results that aren't much different than those caused by conventional commercial fertilizers.

Add to that the fact that the yields from organic farming methods generally come in around 60-90% of those from conventional agriculture, and you can see that – barring a sudden and dramatic turnaround in population growth – it's not all that practical in the long run.

So why look at organic at all? Well, from a profit perspective, well-planned organic operations may be more lucrative for the individual farmer. And the organically-grown stuff can be healthier for the consumers, if not for the planet. Environmentally speaking, organic farms do use a lot less carbon-based fuels – about half as much, according to the British Soil Association.

The bottom line is that every farmer has to make their own decision, but as a society we should probably not expect organic microfarms to feed the world any time soon. Instead, the good ideas and best practices of “boutique” organic farms will slowly spread to the mainstream, reducing the environmental impact of conventional farming and improving the quality of farm products.

The following Guest blog post was authored by Kevin Pearina of USDALoans

Kevin@usdaloans.com

www.usdaloans.com

 
            In 1994, the Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act reshaped USDA home loans. These loans, backed by the Department of Agriculture, remain one of the last home-financing options to feature no down payment. Generally, homeowners who finance a purchase with a USDA loan live in more rural areas.
            The USDA saw a need for the program as a result of few lenders operating in rural areas where low-income families struggled to find financially-bearable loan options. In time, the program has expanded to include middle-class families in slightly more populous areas. Usually, families who get USDA loans are in cities or towns with no more than 25,000 persons.
            Not every borrower qualifies for the 0 percent down payment perk, but like other government loan programs, down payments are a fraction of what traditional loan options offer. Rural Home Loans also come with lower, fixed interest rates and no private mortgage insurance. Homebuyers can finance 100 percent of purchase price even if they don’t pay anything down.
            To list even more benefits, there are less restrictive financial and credit requirements. Credit scores of at least 620 usually satisfy lenders, but better credit allows for a higher debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. No matter what loan homebuyers attain, it’s best to keep DTI low. Borrowers can still qualify for a USDA loan with a monthly DTI as high as 41 percent.
            Originally intended for repeat homebuyers only, USDA loans are now available to first-time homebuyers. At first, the program was designed for repeat homebuyers in need of more adequate housing. Only families occupying housing that is inadequate for the family’s size can qualify for a USDA loan. Another qualifying measure depends on borrower’s income. USDA loan applicants’ income can be as high as 115 percent of the median income of the area where the home is located.
            The USDA determines whether a home is the right size per the family’s size. Oversized homes cannot be purchased with a USDA loan. Also, the USDA makes sure homebuyers are able to repay the loan in monthly installments. Like other government loan programs, the USDA does not issue the loan. USDA-approved lenders are funneled the money from the government and it is therefore available to borrowers.

For all its awesome natural beauty and thousands of years of history, Japan is a nation that is very poor in resources. Back between 1900 and 1945 – taking their cues from Britain, Germany, France and the U.S.A. - the Japanese attempted to rectify that situation by creating their own empire in Asia. That didn't work out so well for them.

Afterwards, Japan started focusing on developing its economic and manufacturing muscle. That actually worked out very well – but the problem of resources remained, especially as the population exploded during the post-World War II decades. The country still winds up importing a lot of its food, since only about 15% of the country is arable...and that situation is not getting any better. Nonetheless, between making the most of what they had through advanced farming techniques and some smart advance planning, Japan has managed to become around 65-70% self-sufficient in agricultural products.

Then came the triple-whammy earlier this month – major earthquakes, tidal waves (tsunamis) and now, nuclear radiation from damaged reactors at the nation's power plants. The latter is especially serious, since radiation can poison the land for decades – and even centuries.

A recent report out of KFGO in Fargo, North Dakota pointed out that the tsunamis, which penetrated in land up to six miles in some places, affected only four of the country's prefectures (those are similar to provinces, counties or boroughs) – and those four account for just over 12% of the nation's rice production. Because of the saltwater, farm production in those areas is going to be out of production for awhile. However, the report did not account for the effect of those damaged reactors, which happens to be located in one of those areas – the Fukishima prefecture, to be exact.

It's something that most people are not talking about, though reporters over at Bloomberg interviewed some knowledgeable sources on the topic. While pointing out that food products are often treated with radiation in order to prolong shelf life (the process is called irradiation, and many people find even this is a questionable practice), the real problem is what happens to the soil. The bottom line is that food production within a 20-mile radius may be affected for up to thirty years – and if the weather or ground water leaching carries radioactive particles further, the problem may get worse. At particular risk are dairy products.

Once some radioactive particles get into the human body, they may remain for years – and wreak havoc on DNA that is not pleasant to contemplate. Japanese agricultural productivity is likely to be down for quite some time.

Note Added April 4 2011

 Friends and family, please check out SolarForJapan.com and consider contributing.  Two contributors will win a free solar system.  If you live out of Hawaii and win you can "gift" the system to a worthy cause like Habitat for Humanity.  (Please spread the word)