Beyond Organic
In order to be labeled “organic”, vegetables, herbs and fruits must be grown in a soil-based environment using a plant or an animal-based fertilizer.
In other terms, with commercial organic farming, although free from pesticides and GMOs, the tomatoes, lettuce, and broccoli which you might find in stores are usually grown in a soil depleted from nutrients, which often times is enhanced with animal-based fertilizers derived from pigs, cows, horses, chickens, etc. Although we are in full support of organic farming, we deplore the fact that organic farmers are only compelled to use organic fertilizers, but are not under the obligation to tell customers whether such fertilizers are plant-based or animal-based.
Our vegetables, herbs and fruits have more nutrients than their counterparts grown in soil and we can prove it!
Earth-based minerals
When farming with Tower Garden® aeroponic technology, we use a proprietary water soluble ionic mineral solution called “Towertonic”. Only the purest earth minerals are used thus allowing us to deliver all necessary & essential nutrients straight to the roots, resulting in a healthier plant growth and a superior crop yield. Furthermore, contrary to fertilizers used in conventional farming and gardening featuring ammoniacal nitrogen, Aeroponic Towertonic is made with nitrate nitrogen.
Beyond Organic – What does “Organic” really mean?
Minerals cannot be classified as “organic” from a chemistry’s perspective. In fact, do you know what “Organic Farming” actually is? Well, Organic farming must include the natural decaying process of organic matter and turning them into non-organic matter (mineralization). This is what happens when we give organic animal and plant waste to the soil in traditional farming, and let the bacteria and micro-organisms start the decaying process of those organic matter and turn them into non-organic minerals. This is why hydroponics and aeroponics are not classified as organic, after all, we provide the plants straight up with the required minerals, skipping the decaying process completely.
Whether minerals are created through natural organic mineralization, or obtained from mining the earth, as long as they are free from man-made harmful chemicals, it is exactly the same for the plants, there is no difference.
However, like with organic farming, our aeroponic technology produces vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers grown without pesticides nor chemicals! We refer to our crop as “Beyond Organic” since our aeroponic technology uses up to 92% less water than conventional farming while requiring 75% to 90% less space! Our 100% natural agricultural approach ranks amongst one of the most eco-friendly food production systems, and is even LEED Point certifiable!
Higher Nutrient Content
We invite you to read the extensive pharmaceutical laboratory nutrients comparative study published below. It gives the irrefutable scientific proof that whether referring to essential nutrients, flavonoids, or antioxidants, our crop ranks between 15% to 65% higher than anything grown in the soil using conventional farming methods.
Ammoniacal Nitrogen vs. Nitrate Nitrogen
Ammoniacal Nitrogen is used in commercial farming to create an ‘explosive growth effect’. Although it does a great job in terms of forcing nature to grow bigger and faster, it weakens the cell structure of the plants. This makes them more prone to pests & diseases while producing an inferior crop in terms of nutrient values and flavor qualities. This is why instead of using ammoniacal nitrogen, we use nitrate nitrogen which is the purest and most effective way to produce a healthy crop featuring high nutritional qualities.
Why use BOVF – Beyond Organic Vertical Farming Tower Farms over Organic Soil Farming??
1) Soil toxicity: Our international partners at Agrotonomy are currently setting up Tower Farms where the soil is so toxic that it is not farmable (i.e. slums in Africa and South America). They are involved with a Tower Farm project at 4200 m elevation in Peru (CEA greenhouse involved). This project is meant to feed Inca communities living at high elevations up in the Andes mountains where nothing grows. Their land has been poisoned/trashed by the mining industry. Agrotonomy are in the process of producing tons of fresh foods year-round where no other agricultural technology has delivered results before.
This is very much applicable to most Kuwaiti lands, were the soil has been severely deprived of any nutrients value, and is extremely toxic to plants (such is the case with our own farm in AlWafra Area).
2) Water saving: Our partners are also currently involved with Tower Farm projects from the Chihuahuan Mexican desert to Masai Mara in Kenya, where water availability is scarce. Our aeroponic tower technology only uses 5% of the water in comparison to conventional soil farming. In other terms, we save 95% water with our aeroponic towers. This is not argumentative but rather very much factual. Organic farming in these extreme contexts is utopia.
Kuwait also suffers from that same water scarcity issue, being that the majority of the country is a desert.
3) Space-saving: depending on crops, we save from 75% to 95% space. For example, our partners are working on building a small Tower Farm for an orphanage in Mexico. They were only allocated 100 m² of land which is part of their backyard. In 100 m², with an aeroponic Tower Farm, they were able to grow the same amount of vegetables which would require 1000 m² to 1200 m² of land if grown in the soil.
The same applies when we develop a project inside a greenhouse. Farming vertically allows us to grow 10 times more crops within the same structure in comparison to soil farming or conventional hydroponics. This means up to 90% reduction of our energy footprint.
In fact, we as Beyond Organic created a rooftop greenhouse in a very tight area in AUK and a small indoor farming lab in BBS for educational use.
4) Pesticides: When all the fields around have been sprayed with heavy chemicals for years and years, pests and insects of all kinds have “mutated”, and have become more resistant, more resilient… the organic farmer is therefore compelled to spray outrageous amounts of organic pesticides… Whether using pesticides based on pyrethrin or neem oils (just for example), the organic farmer needs to spray heavily concentrated amounts to keep the crops bug-free. Most organic food aficionados have no clue of how much and how many pesticides are being sprayed before the crops reach maturity. An organic vegetable garden in someone’s backyard cannot be used to benchmark the carbon footprint of an organic commercial farm.
When operating a Tower Farm, we rarely have to spray anything – ever! This is a fact that cannot be argued since it is extensively documented based on countless tons of crops which we have been growing both ways.
5) Increased nutrient density: Tower Garden is the only agricultural technology that has invested in an extensive scientific comparative study. This study compares scientifically crops grown on our aeroponic towers versus the best data ever collected of crops grown through conventional methods in the soil. In all cases, we average out 40% nutrient density increase and 30% to 60% increase for antioxidant and flavonoid contents.
We do not advocate to grow better greens, but rather, we prove it. Science does not lie.
The manufacturer spent over $1 million conducting these scientific comparative studies. No one else in our industry has ever taken the time nor invested the financial resource to show the quality of their crops.
Not only this comparative scientific study proves the superior nutrient density content of our fruits and vegetables, but it also shows that we average 35% crop yield increase in comparison to soil farming.
6) Reduction in carbon footprint: Some Tower Farms feature thousands of towers producing tons of fresh produce within city limits. When considering that vegetables travel over 1000 miles on average before landing on a plate, from rooftops to abandoned warehouses, and from greenhouses to atriums, our technology is versatile and has been adapted to every urban context reducing considerably the carbon footprint of our crops.
Scientific Research
Assessment of Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Content, Antioxidant Properties, & Yield of Aeroponically
and Conventionally Grown Leafy Vegetables and Fruit Crops: A Comparative Study
This research was partially funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Specific Cooperative Agreement no. 58-6408-6-067, and by a grant from Juice Plus+, Collierville, TN, USA. Ms. Katherine Martin is acknowledged for the excellent technical support in performing bioassays.