It's not easy to grow food, as any farmer or gardener can tell you.
It requires skill, more than a little luck, and the cooperation of Mother Nature. The history of agriculture is filled with tales of disaster when things don't work out. But it's also filled with stories of how man has moved past some of agriculture's greatest challenges by irrigating deserts, stopping crop-destroying insects, and modifying plants.
Now we seem to be entering an all-new era where food can come from places even harsher on plants than a desert. Scientists and others are looking at a future where food can be grown anywhere. Who needs land, water and sun when a combination of pluck, technology, and necessity can produce food?
Here's a look at four decidedly hostile environments where people are now producing food.
In space
During the time of the moon race, Americans were fascinated by what astronauts ate, and how they ate anything at all in zero gravity. Kids became enchanted with Tang and astronaut ice cream. And in today's world of squeezable yogurt and apple sauce packs, it's hard to imagine that they once used toothpaste tubes when pretending to be astronauts at dinnertime.
One thing that didn't change much about space food since the Johnson administration is that astronauts have had to bring everything they'll eat with them....until now.
NASA has developed a see-through, self-contained chamber that astronauts can use to grow fresh produce in space. The chamber, dubbed "Veggie," has seeds, nutrients and a series of LED lights. NASA hopes that Veggie will give space travelers access to better foods and provide a morale-boosting hobby.
Under the sea
Spaceship living has always been comparable to submarine life, and food is no exception. In particular, the U.S. Navy has long experimented with hydroponics, as this document outlining the requirements for something with the decidedly military name of Intensive Agriculture Unit can attest. Army veterans will take some pride in noting that it was the Army research lab that conducted the tests on the IAU. But that is little consolation given that everyone in the Army knows that folks in submarines eat really, really well.
In the dark
People have been growing plants in greenhouses for a very long time. The Romans had a greenhouse-like system. The Koreans had a full-blown greenhouse with variable temperatures by 1450.
But as fabulous as greenhouses are, they required the presence of the sun. A greenhouse does little more than capture and hold the plant-producing power of the sun. But in submarines, spaceships and such, sun is hard to come by.
Hydroponics does away with the need for soil, but most plants still require a fair amount of light. Early experiments on ships and in space centered on LED lighting, and as it turns out, plants grow pretty well in red light. But about 20 years ago scientists discovered that by adding a tiny bit of blue light to the mix, plants did even better. Add red and blue light together and you get a plant-friendly pink light.
Enter the pinkhouse era. Pinkhouses are indoor, plant-growing facilities where the sun never shines and where the environment can be controlled more closely to avoid the development of foodborne pathogens. A pinkhouse is more like a silicon-chip clean room than a traditional farm. Which is why electronics companies like Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp are building these food factories across the globe.
In Brooklyn
OK, maybe Brooklyn isn't really a "decidedly hostile environment" for growing food. But come on! It's Brooklyn, land of Ralph Kramden and Tony Manero. The place once known as the borough of churches has become the borough of urban farming. Three of our Five Coolest Urban Farms in America operate in Brooklyn. Maybe that's not as impressive as growing veggies in space, but it's still pretty surprising.
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