Hydroponics and geopolitics: soilless farming and visions of state power, c.1936–1972
Journal: European Journal of International Relations
Year: 2026

From the late 1930s to today, the technological lure of hydroponics has inspired many geopolitical imaginations of planetary transformation. Hydroponics, or soilless farming, refers to a bundle of technologies to raise crops outside of arable land, using nutrient solutions in water, sand or gravel media. Envisioned as a technology with the potential to overcome food scarcity, soil exhaustion and climate limitations, hydroponics featured in many 20th-century geopolitical imaginations, often as a