Thirst is increasingly threatening our lives, and hydroponic agriculture (soilless agriculture) seems to be a solution to reduce water consumption and meet our food demand. Soilless agriculture requires much less water consumption than typical agriculture. In addition, it is possible to install systems where all the water used, including rainwater, can be recycled and reused. One hydroponic farm in Montreal, Canada (LUFA) currently feeds 2% of the city with fresh, environmentally friendly, and sustainable food. It is a greenhouse, which was established in 2009; this garden is located on the roof of a building for the first time in the world. The company primarily aims to provide easy access to fresh and local food produced next to urban life. With the hydroponic system, they have installed on the idle roofs of industrial buildings in Montreal, they send pesticide-free agriculture all over the city with electric vehicles and in environmentally friendly packaging. The manufacturer shows how this sustainable agriculture is possible without building another building or destroying another forest.

The direct benefits of using hydroponic agriculture

Hydroponic farms can trap rainwater and include it in closed-circuit irrigation systems, and with the reuse of water, they can also provide significant water savings. Likewise, they can recycle waste and provide it in their compost system. On the other hand, the common experience of the Canadian hydroponic greenhouses is that soil agriculture in the field is much less efficient than hydroponic agriculture. These producers state that they can produce 300 times more products than soil agriculture by consuming 97% less water and using 100% renewable energy with hydroponic farming. A Canadian participant in a hydroponic farm claims when they produce their crop on the roofs of industrial buildings, in addition to not occupying a new place or adding a new agricultural land, they can benefit from the rising heat of the building and save a great amount of energy. He says they consume only half the energy of a traditional greenhouse built on the ground.

What are the critics of hydroponic agriculture?

Although hydroponic agriculture is possible to do without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicide drugs, it is not yet seen as 'organic' agriculture because the product does not grow in the soil; therefore, organic certification is not given to them.

What are the predictions about hydroponic agriculture's future?

Considering all the evidence, it is extremely promising to see the rapidly increasing examples of hydroponic agriculture in Canada and everywhere in the world. It might be one of the sustainable agricultural methods of the future, while it is known that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are heating and drying the world more and more every day.   Hydroponics agriculture can be explained in its simplest form as a form of agriculture in which plants get the nutritional values they need from specially prepared solutions instead of soil, and grow in these solutions without the need for soil. There are many valid reasons why this method is seen as a form of agriculture of the future and we come across new examples every day.