Worker sorting tomatoes grown hydroponically using Dutch buckets into boxes at the Kagome Onahama Tomato Greenhouse in Fukushima, Japan. Hydroponics is the cultivation of plants without soil. Instead, the roots of the plant are immersed in troughs or buckets through which nutrient-rich water trickles. These tomatoes were grown with the support of an agricultural company in the Fukushima Prefecture after the area was hit by a tsunami in 2011. The tsunami caused damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, leading to the meltdown of three of the nuclear reactors and a leak of radioactive material.