Atlanta Company Uses Hydroponics to Grow Food

Farmers are usually thought of as having a "green thumb" but a growing trend in farming is cropping up. It's farmers with "wet thumbs."

Hydroponics has a funny sounding name but is a serious idea.

If you saw some old shipping containers parked on an empty lot, you'd probably think they were useless, but you'd be wrong.

"When restaurants and chefs come here for the first time to see our farm, we stand here just like this and I say, here it is," said Matt Liotta of Podponics.

That's right. He said farm. But more technically, the containers house a hydroponic farm.

"Hydroponics is simply a method of growing plants without soil, using water," said Liotta.

It's not a new concept, but it's picking up steam. Atlanta-based company Podponics says inside these containers they can grow just about any fresh produce. They focus on lettuce.

"So the seed is placed in these cubes and it's irrigated in one of these trays and over the course of a week or so, they actually form into small plants," said Liotta.

Hydroponics is considered the future of farming.

"With hydroponics, you can precisely control the nutriants that the plant receives as well as the conditions that the plant grows in. And because of the precision you're able to provide optimal conditions for the plant, which results in ultimately a better crop.

It's harvested every three days and sold to local restaurants. Seth hendrickson of goin' coastal says the flavor texture is much more vibrant.

"Not only is it fresh, it's local. Not local 300 miles, not local 600 miles, but local 15 minutes down the road. That means a lot for the product, means a lot for the environment. Imagine the carbon footprint bring lettuce all the way from California," said Seth Hendricks of Going' Coastal.

So in one trailer you're getting more than an acre and a half worth of farming. That means you're doing a lot more with a lot less - you're using less water, virtually no pesticides and of course, a lot less land.

"The UN expects that we'll have 15 percent less arable land in the next 25 years. So we really need to be able to divorce growing food from land," said Liotta. "When we hire people, we're able to train them in a couple of hours on how to actually run one of these. The actual work that humans do is very easy to understand and very easy to do."

A simple idea that takes a little thinking outside the box.

"I think overall, it's not only a better product for the consumer, but a better product for the planet," said Liotta.

Liotta says anyone can have a hydroponics farm. Online you're able to buy home hydroponics kits.

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