World hunger is a tremendous problem exacerbated by the speed with which world population is rising. Food inadequacies are prevalent worldwide: UNICEF states that most of the population of the world--one in four people--lives on less than $1 a day in US dollars, and the World Health Organization advises that two-thirds of the entire population on the planet is under-fed or starving. Based on the Sixth World Food Survey, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that some of the most undernourished populations in the world reside in East and Southeast Asia, Latin American countries, Africa and the Caribbean. This is due, in part, to debt, falling prices of the crops grown in these regions, war, and drought.

Hydroponic gardening is offered as one of several solutions to this urgent situation and may have a positive impact on the problem. Other solutions include greater female autonomy worldwide, which results in decreasing populations and a shift from meat-based diets to plant-based. Hydroponic gardening, a type of indoor gardening that does not rely on soil for a planting medium, also provides a solution to food production in parts of the world where food, or enough food, cannot be grown.

Hydroponic systems are intended to grow plants that thrive indoors. Soil fertility does not come into play because plants grown in indoor gardens use either a nutrient solution or a rooting medium, making hydroponic gardening a viable alternative in areas where drought and desertification have depleted valuable topsoil.

When indoor gardening, plants can be grown in closer quarters when grown hydroponically than the same number of plants grown in soil. The benefit of hydroponic gardening results in increased production yields.

Hydroponic gardening provides ideal growing conditions. Plant food, called nutrients, is customized for each particular variety of crop grown, and the food is delivered through the growing medium to the roots. Another benefit plants receive from hydroponic gardening is the fact that plants do not come into contact with soil. Therefore, with hydroponic gardening, there is no danger to the plants from soil-born diseases. What all of this means is that plants can reach maturity in a hydroponic system much faster than the same plants being grown in soil, with no loss of nutritional value.

Not everyone may be ready to start indoor gardening or to willing to make the switch to a vegetable-based diet. Nutritionally speaking, however, there is no compelling evidence why humans should not be able to do so. The World Health Organization recommends that people should consume 4.5 percent of their total daily caloric intake in protein. Surprisingly, many vegetables offer tremendous amounts of protein. Forty-nine percent of the total calories in a serving of spinach, and forty-seven percent of those in broccoli, come from protein, and is cholesterol free. Even if you do not immediately switch to indoor gardening, simply choosing a vegetable-based meal one evening a week can have a tremendous impact on world hunger.

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