The Future of Urban Agriculture and Hydroponics to Address Environmental Justice Issues

This essay examines the use of hydroponics as a tool to address environmental justice issues. Minority and low-income communities in urban regions are disproportionately affected by food apartheid, and urban agriculture such as hydroponics are touted as a tool that may change the future of these communities. As an ethnographic study, companies of varying sizes in the Northeast and Florida were contacted to give their opinion on what their company was doing for the hydroponic industry, but also for social justice issues alike. The objective was to see whether environmental justice, specifically food security, was a core value of their mission statement and whether they were able to accomplish their goals. Analysis of the interview results found that there was a lack of willingness to divulge information about the hydroponic process. Additionally, at this time, it seems hard to gauge how productive these companies are in terms of actually creating solutions for food apartheid. Hydroponics seems more socially constructive rather than environmentally beneficial for struggling communities.