Village Farms has recently completed a land preservation and water conservation program at their greenhouse facilities in Marfa and Fort Davis, Texas. These projects were designed to reuse agricultural hydroponic greenhouse production waste water to create healthy irrigation water for a vast area of ranchland where native grasslands are now able to flourish and cattle can graze year round.
How is this possible? Hydroponic Greenhouse production is one of the most sustainable forms of agricultural production in the world. Our intensive growing system eliminates the need for large tracks of land, and uses far less agricultural chemicals due to its successful use of integrated Pest Management (IPM), within a contained system. Our unequalled food safety success rate is partially due to eliminating threats from soil, air, and water borne contaminants. And now this whole system has just gotten even better.
Traditionally, hydroponic greenhouse agriculture reuses and recycles its water making it efficient water use production system, and is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the aforementioned reasons. Village Farms hydroponic greenhouse production method marketed as Hydroperfect goes above and beyond the Best Management Practices, outlined for the greenhouse sector by the Clean Water Act of 1972, through its innovative technological solutions to complex production and environmental issues.
Village Farms uses a closed hydroponic system and recycles the nutrient rich water back through the greenhouse up to 4 times. Eventually the water nutrient value becomes less effective and must be replaced. The Village Farms greenhouse facility in west Texas is situated in an arid high desert climate of the upper Rio Grande region where the water table resides several hundred feet below the surface. Allowing waster waste to flow onto the surface was well within state and federal guidelines for waste water disposal and a greenhouse industry standard as a whole. However, as a valuable and scarce resource Village Farms recognized this water could be put to a much better use.
Thanks to the forward thinking of Village Farms co-founders Albert Vanzeyst and Michael DeGiglio a viable solution was sought for the disposal of the waste water, a precious resource within an arid ecosystem like west Texas. Several models for waste water disposal were explored and in the end the best solution was the most simple, reuse it on site. The cost to implement the system for Village Farms was high, but the environmental and social benefits far outweigh the economic considerations, and this in the end is what defines good business sense.
Village Farms took this action unilaterally, known as Best Available Technology (BAT), or also referred to as Best Management Practices (BMP), says Vanzeyst.
The beauty of the land preservation and water conservation program Village Farms has created lies in the ability to go beyond the problem and create a solution adapted to the whole system. What this means is Village Farms not only looked at the greenhouse as a system within itself but looked at the greenhouse and its relationship within its immediate landscape as part of a whole ecosystem.
Simply, to explain how this system works, water is pumped into the greenhouse from deep water wells into holding tanks where it is mixed with essential nutrients. After this the water is circulated throughout a gutter system to the plants and re-circulated numerous times. Once this nutrient rich water is no longer optimal for vegetable plants, the water is saved in a lined holding pond outside the greenhouse. From there, the water is sent out through irrigation pipes to center pivot sprinklers where it is used to irrigate ranchland. Here native grasslands are able to thrive and flourish because of this water. And now local ranchers can graze their cattle on this improved acreage.
This program has been well received by the state of Texas and locally by ranchers in Marfa and Fort Davis. Village Farms worked in conjunction with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to determine the fertilizer application amounts and irrigation rates needed for the grass crop to ensure there are no adverse impacts to the environment. Village Farms will sample soil annually from the irrigated areas to assure proper levels of nutrients are maintained and that there are no long term adverse impacts to the area. Village Farms has now achieved its goal of waste minimization to reuse a precious resource and continues its quest for zero discharge. This example is just one of many Village Farms implements into its production practices that are environmentally sound and sustainable. And what more could you ask for from a company that realizes that the bottom line and what makes good business sense go hand in hand.
Source: Village Farms