DUNBAR, W.Va. (NewsNation Now) — A West Virginia farm has taken a creative solution to ensuring that residents can safely get the produce they need: hydroponic farming.
The western part of Dunbar is considered a food desert, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture characterizes as an area where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food. This could mean residents living in the area lack access to nearby grocery stores, or that traditional farming measures are more difficult due to the soil quality.
“You can use hydroponics anywhere if you don’t trust the soil,” said Joey Aloi, a marketing specialist for Paradise Farms, told NewsNation affiliate WOWK. “We don’t really know what everybody did when they lived here, but we can be pretty sure a little bit of oil and diesel spilled out at least.”
The Dunbar farm currently grows tomatoes, peppers, leafy greens and more. The hydroponic vegetables are grown in water instead of dirt.
“Whole counties in West Virginia have lost grocers, and that’s just a thing that happens in a place like West Virginia, where your population is a little older than average and declining,” Aloi said.
The program is also supposed to support reform and job training for prison inmates, but that is on hold since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Areas with less space and inhospitable climates have found success in hydroponics. Arizona, as well as Japan and Israel, are just a few of the places that have adopted water-based farming.
