[Hitton]

I agree about the taste, but I don't think it's caused by variety taste difference. Problem is that when tomatoes are imported from further away, they are picked and transported (more) unripe and later exposed to ethylene gas to ripen closer to consumer. Being grown using hydroponics or bags of mineral wool certainly doesn't help with the taste either.

[NoOneNew]

I can agree that many people who eat salads, will not care about the difference in taste between hydroponics and well composted soil. Especially when it comes to the cost difference. But that doesn't mean there isn't a difference, because there is. Any home gardener can tell you that the exact same lettuce variety grown in well composted soil, over produced commercial soil void of natural nutrients (and biological ecosystem in the soil) and hydroponics, are all difference in taste. I think Butter Lettuce varieties are the most intense and shocking in difference (my experience).

Economically speaking, for wide scale production, most people don't care about the flavor of their lettuce or spinach. Which I understand and don't have a qualm with. I just have a problem with people who have never held a shovel in their lives try to act they know everything about farming and make wide sweeping judgements (what's that fallacy about lack of knowledge and thinking you know it all?). When you grow it yourself in a good environment, you enjoy eating leafy greens alone because you can taste actual flavor.

What a lot of people outside of agriculture don't know is the movement to recreating the top soil back to a healthy state. Commercial farmland soil is borderline clay and sand, especially compared to well maintained soil. Chemical fertilizers only go so far. A wide variety of decomposing organic matter is needed in soil to help maintain it. Along with letting a field sit for a few years with a cover crop (or variety of cover crops to speed up the process) is needed. Adding in grazing livestock is even better.

Mostly, I know you all think farming and agricultural science are stupid, numbskull pursuits because you're all techies. The obvious and only way to save agriculture is to use silicon chips, plastic and metal to fix it all. But "dirt" agriculture is extremely in-depth and complex. Especially the last 2 decades worth of research has been insane due to the realization that our "tried and true" commercial farming operations are more unsustainable than our dependency on fossil fuels. I don't see an inherent problem with vertical farming. I have a problem with the hubris that over commercialization is the only method of fixing these problems, even though that's the reason we have the problems to begin with.

[eecc]

I will also add the constant aggression by the scorching sun of Southern Italy. Why do you think they’re supposed to be full of antioxidants and other healthy nutrients? Coincidentally for your consumer pleasure, or did the plants evolve them to survive weeks upon weeks of implacable 40C temperatures and a flood of UVA-B.