Hydroponics

In the 1980's, a man who made antivenom for snakes in Australia was telling Douglas Adams (as related in Last Chance to See), that the future was in hydroponics. Almost thirty years later, he might just be correct. But very few people seem to know it. Hydroponics is a way of growing plants in little or no soil. Systems can be very complicated and mechanized or as simple as a well-monitored tomato plant in a mason jar. There have been recent developements in the mechanized area, where farming units are available. These machines can grow several acres of plants in a single unit, because the plants are given a perfectly-balanced portion of light, darkness, and water by being rotated in a circular hydroponic planter. The plants are also slightly larger and grow somewhat faster. How does this sound as a solution to world hunger or the demand for ethanol?