USDA Secretary visits Central Florida hydroponic farm, calls it a 'very innovative food production system'
ORLANDO, Fla. - A purple room in Orlando could be the future of farming.
Kalera is a local company growing lettuce hydroponically, meaning they grow lettuce in a lab and without soil. The purple light throughout the room helps growth.
USDA Secretary, former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, took a tour.
“It was a very innovative food production system,” Perdue said. He believes there are “many advantages, obviously, from a sustainability perspective, from a health perspective, from a growing perspective there.”
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Perdue said it was good to see America leading in feeding the world, stating that “it's good to be here to see the innovative, creativity, entrepreneurship of the United States of America developing different ways to grow and provide food.”
Perdue said hydroponics could get food from farm to table faster. He said that "if we can have these type of facilities in major areas of consumption, then it reduces the cost as well as the delivery time to the customer for fresh, there.”
It's a sensitive time for America’s growers, with COVID-19 shaking-up the country’s food landscape. Perdue said the USDA was doing what it could to help. He said they "took CDC guidelines, OSHA guidelines, threading that needle for keeping people safe, the workers safe, but also keeping food on the table.”
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