Nutrional content of aquaponically grown vegetables

[bp1956]

Hello all,
I apologize in advance if this has been covered in the forum previously, but I'm looking to get good information that compares the nutritional content of aquaponic grown vegetables versus those grown in organic soils. Can anyone point me in the direction to reliable sources?
Thanks!

[davidstcldfl]

That's a great question bp1956. I've seen discussions about it. I'm not aware of any actual research.
Maybe UrbanFarmer will pull something out of his gardening wizards hat.... :P

There are so many variables, that come to mind... :?:

-The test would have to use the 'exact' veggies in both the AP and soil.
Tomatoes for example, vary in nutrients ,from one type to the next

-What type/brand of fish feed would be used in the test ?

-What fish are being used ?
Stucco mentioned that he didn't think cats do as well as tilapia.

-What type of AP system ?
A media system with worms 'may/should' have more nutrients....even if it's slight. We are counting in the test.
I still see this as AP....I'm using troughs with AP water flowing through. The plants are in wicking bags, using potting mix made up by myself. I used various bat guanos , bone and blood meal, azomite, epson salts and lime.

-How is the system ran/maintained ?
...Many add sea salt to their system's water, they should have more trace nutes....even if it's slight
...Many AP'ers use foliar spray, I usually use maxi crop and molasses....sometimes a little worm castings.
...Many, including myself, add maxi crop to the water.
...I already mentioned worms in media, what are they being fed besides fish waste ?
...Will the test include systems with different PH levels ?

...Will the veggies be grown in the same grow zone..at the same time ?

[rfeiller]

excellent post Dave, get very frustrated when i see someone that has dragged up statistics from only God knows where and publishes them as gospel guidelines for there projections.
i can assure you that the addition of vermiponics to my system made a HUGE difference.

Rich

[davidstcldfl]

Thanks Rich... ;)

I wish there were some tests being done. I'm actually hoping UF comes up with something. Any comparison, would be a good starting point.
It would be interesting to see results, listing and including the variables.

[urbanfarmer]

I was reluctant to post because I honestly don't think any scientific research has gone into specifically comparing nutritional value of AP grown veggies vs. veggies grown in soil. However, I didn't want to dissuade anyone from checking! I can't find anything nor have I ever heard of this. It's just that AP is such a small field and so few academics are involved right now. I think people are still trying to figure out what an AP system really is, how to define it, and how to operate one successfully. I think once that is established properly, there will be a standard to test nutritional values of AP grown veggies. Until then, it may be impossible to define what that is to perform an experiment or research... I don't mean to be a Debbie downer. I really hope someone finds something! :-)

[Basil1]

Closest thing I've seen recently was a report that said organic vegetables had no more nutritional value than conventionally grown ones.

[Aufin]

Closest thing I've seen recently was a report that said organic vegetables had no more nutritional value than conventionally grown ones.


I don't/can't believe that report.

[Basil1]

What they all say is while the taste may be better and it does not have the chemical additives, nutritionally they are identical.

[keith_r]

there's a guy that works for i think aes that has a pretty big ap system.. he did some brix test comparisons (measures sugars) between his soil and ap crops, his ap crops had consistantly higher scores
i haven't seen any "nutritional" studies though..

[urbanfarmer]

If available, I would like to see the study that supports the claim that AP grown veggies yield twice (or even significantly more) sugar than organically grown veggies (or any style of agriculture so long as the veggies grew under optimal conditionals). I'm just curious. Thank you

[Basil1]

Closest thing I've seen recently was a report that said organic vegetables had no more nutritional value than conventionally grown ones.


I don't/can't believe that report.

Do you have anything to support why you "can't" believe this or is it you "don't" because it doesn't fit your current beliefs?

[rfeiller]

Basil 1 if you can what was the source behind the study and more importantly who funded the study. Thanks

[Basil1]

Basil 1 if you can what was the source behind the study and more importantly who funded the study. Thanks

Can't remember the first one I read but the last one was by Livestrong. Not saying it's a100% true but when an article is not even referenced to look at, how can it be summarily dismissed.

[David - WI]

This one was just in the news; but the body of the story seems to contradict the heading: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/48888214/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

[davidstcldfl]

I listened to the link that David-WI provided.



The lady from the collage said that they had reviewed hundreds of reports.
I haven't even finished my morning coffee and I can think of so many variables. Here's just a few...

So who did all of these reports ? Who paid for them to be done ?
How 'fresh' were the veggies when they were tested.
Were they from the same grow zone...at the same time ?
Were they the same vegetable type ?

I mentioned this earlier in this post...Tomatoes for example...some are known to have much higher vitamin C then the next type.

[bsfman]

I listened to the link that David-WI provided.



The lady from the collage said that they had reviewed hundreds of reports.
I haven't even finished my morning coffee and I can think of so many variables. Here's just a few...

So who did all of these reports ? Who paid for them to be done ?
How 'fresh' were the veggies when they were tested.
Were they from the same grow zone...at the same time ?
Were they the same vegetable type ?

I mentioned this earlier in this post...Tomatoes for example...some are known to have much higher vitamin C then the next type.

To me it makes sense that the nutritional content is the same. Plants will extract what they need from available nutrients regardless of whether the source of the nutrients are inorganic or organic, and then put those nutrients into their reproductive efforts (seed bearing fruits, grains, or root propagation). There are other benefits to organic growing however. The primary benefit is soil sustainability and perhaps yield or productivity of the plants and the lack of chemical contamination from certain pesticides. Regarding organic versus inorganic meat: I assume the same thing nutrition wise. The big (and it's a major BIG) advantage to organic meats is that they are free from the accumulation of antibiotics and hormones routinely used in raising non-organic meat animals.

Freshness may be a factor in the vitamin C/tomato thing, David. I would presume that organic fruit and veggies tend to be delivered more often to local markets and harvested closer to maturity than the massively produced crops that are picked green to survive long distance shipping and handling. In the same regard, I would presume inorganic fruit and veggies grown by non-organic gardeners but picked ripe and consumed shortly after would be higher in flavor and vitamin content than store bought inorganic stuff.

Again, improved tilth, soil sustainability, and lack of contaminants are the big advantages to organic foods. The "more nutritional" aspect may indeed be over-hyped.

[urbanfarmer]

Damnit bsfman, let them post the research first! :lol:

I held my tongue before saying anything, but you've hit all the major ideas I wanted to address with the research at hand. The freshness of vegetables determines the amount of degradation of phytochemicals that we require as nutrients (vitamins and others). Mineral content would be the same IF all nutrients were available, perhaps? Minerals don't degrade like phytochemicals often do (not all do though). However, perfect osmosis does not occur across the plant root membrane; so, there is the possibility nutrient rich soils can yield more nutritious food. I don't think people realize plants get vitamins from the microorganisms in the soil (in other words the plants don't make it). If the soil is lacking nutrition for the bacteria, then the plant will lack nutrition from the bacteria; thusly, so will we lack nutrition from the plant.

Of course, it's all speculative until we see some hard data! Come on, we want it already! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[davidstcldfl]

Staying on topic, but taking a slight rabbit trail...

I kept thinking about how the folks from Stanford performed this so
called 'Study'....

This is right out of the transcript...
but a new study from stanford university on the health advantages of organic products over their counter-parts. they evaluated 5,000 articles and over 200 studies.

I'm not very impressed.. :roll:
Here's a major university like Stanford. Students are paying ...what..?..50 + K a year to go there. And the best they can do... is sit down in a group and re-hash someone else's work...?... :? ..:roll:

as Dave clicks on the submit button, he's heard muttering under his breath...

[davidstcldfl]

I stumbled onto the cornucopia institute while reading some articles on farming. They did an egg review, that I found interesting. It's based on 'how' the chickens are rasied.

It would of been nice, if they had the eggs tested in a lab.


When you click below and go to the article, towards the top of the page, look for/click on...View Scorecard Criteria. It will give details on what they based their rating.

http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/
.