Water conservation in agriculture is a big topic of conversation as seven southwestern states try to figure out how to curb their water
Decades-old water compacts didn’t account for prolonged extreme drought conditions or the level of population growth. We need to be better about capturing and storing rain and snowmelt, but it’s obvious that cutting usage where we can is going to be key to ensuring the survivability of communities throughout the southwest. This is a very real challenge, and it’s one we’re faced with right now, before we encounter a dead pool situation that would have a catastrophic domino effect.
We’ve spent recent years figuring out how to grow food with fewer natural resources. As much as 50 percent of the water we use outdoors is lost due to wind, evaporation, and runoff caused by inefficient irrigation methods and systems. A household with an automatic landscape irrigation system that isn’t properly maintained and operated can waste up to 25,000 gallons of water annually.
The Vertical Hydroponic Farms we build are designed to limit water loss to evaporation and to get the most out of every drop of water. We capture, filter and recycle it back through our system, and you can water your outdoor plants with any nutrient-rich water that’s left over. It’s not the entire solution, but it’s one way that technology can help ease the burden on our fragile water supply.