"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
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Disaster Relief! - Hydroponic Fresh Start
![[Picture of Hydroponic Kit]](http://www.carbon.org/catalog/pub/disasterkit.jpg)
Further to my post on Hydroponic Starter Kits, I've been doing some digging around to see what else is out there. There are certainly plenty of commercial home hydroponics kits, but these don't meet the constraints I set out (too expensive, don't use local materials etc). However, I did find this site for the Institute of Simplified Hydroponics , which confirmed two things - i) this does seem to be a good idea that can really help people to become more self sufficient and ii) that this is not a new idea and that lots of places around the world are using hydroponics successfully.
Of particular interest at the Institute of Simplified Hydroponics site is this Fresh Start Kit (and pictured above) - specifically designed for disaster relief situtations to enable a family to start producing vegetables within 45 days (plus it contains some thick plastic sheeting which can be used for other stuff like emergency shelter). It costs $45 (a dollar a day until food production?), which doesn't fit my 'ultra-low-cost' contraint, but it does fit my original brief much more closely than the more commercial kits. The idea is that someone donates a box to a family - which could be a great way to ensure that disaster relief donations are investing in the long term (Haiti or Chile anyone? - I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is and buy one right after posting this).
So where does this leave the Hydroponic Starter Kit brief? well I think it's still valid, it's focussed on the right thing and could still benefit from input from the EVOKE network. The challenge, to my mind, is to drive down the cost by making even greater use of local materials - maybe even to make it a hydroponic version of the Garden in a Sack? Your thought, comments and ideas, as ever, will be much appreciated!
btw, Raymond Kristiansen kindly created a wiki page based on my Hydroponic Starter Kit post :)
Views: 217
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Comment by Alex Stovell on March 16, 2010 at 10:06am
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Please note that the paypal link doesn't work for the disaster relief kit :( I'll try and look into it further.
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Comment by Joseph Nadler on March 16, 2010 at 11:05am
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Does hydroponics require clean water? In an emergency or a developing country this would be hugely difficult. I looked at the garden in the sack and it seemed interesting, but also water intensive (the fabric would wick the water to the huge surface area).
Sorry if it seems like I'm harping on about water, but in Australia out dams are at record lows with targets of 155 litres per person per day in my area.
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No apology needed - you're making a very valid point :) I have to say I didn't know the answer - found this link which seems to indicate that hydroponics can be useful if you don't have clean water. I'll do some other searching - or hopefully someone here already knows the answer?
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I know water can be purified through reed beds, but this would be very space intensive. In Australia we're told not to use grey water (from showering and such) on fruits or vegetables because some plants like watermelon, lettuce, tomatoes will store pathogens harmful to people from contaminated water.
Could the black sheeting be used to heat the water above 60C, or could plastic containers be put in the sun to pasturize the water possibly? It's not a perfect solution, but with a cloth filter you could remove at least some of the pathogens.
Using a simple biochar filter might be good to use as well if heavy metals or other contamination is a problem. I'll put my thinking cap on!
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Comment by Ayala Sherbow on March 16, 2010 at 3:09pm
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Alex - I admire your continuing to follow through with this idea! I think it could be very useful to many people.
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Comment by Shakwei Mbindyo on March 21, 2010 at 5:33pm
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+1KS. what a great post - how did I miss it?
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Comment by Linda Holt on March 21, 2010 at 5:48pm
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Great post! I am continuing to consider the water problem. I live in a very humid climate and I am exploring methods of condensation. . .
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Thanks for the comments and encouragement!
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Comment by David Anderson on March 26, 2010 at 1:45pm
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With a small solar panel for power, seems like you put a hydroponics systems anywhere.
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