Farming with seawater

An interesting report on LiveScience today on growing crops such as tomatoes using diluted seawater. Apparently, tomatoes grown using the method produce higher levels of antioxidants. From the article:

The researchers found that growing tomatoes in 10 percent seawater improved antioxidant levels significantly, findings they detailed in the April 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Glenn noted the water that percolates out from normally irrigated soil, technically known as irrigation return flow, is often as salty as 10 percent seawater. "About a third of irrigation water becomes irrigation return flow, so there's a huge amount of this brackish water, and this research now suggests this could get reused for crops," Glenn told LiveScience.