Extreme Environments

Market Study Report, LLC recently added a report on ' Space Agriculture market' that ... Global Vertical Farming Vegetables and Fruits Market 2021 by ...

Using what it calls “regenerative ocean farming,” Greenwave's farms sit vertically below the ocean's surface and produce high yields with a small ...

Golden Eden Produce near Burr almost lost their tomatoes this season due to the cold snap – but with some community co-operation, the plants were saved. The greenhouse, which covers just under two-thirds of an acre, supplied 33 stores in Saskatchewan with produce in the 2020 year, and is a current…

The Japanese prefecture of Fukushima, which before the 2011 earthquake was known for its prosperous agriculture, resumed its agricultural activities ten years after the nuclear accident that affected them; a period of time that was necessary to guarantee that people could safely eat the fruits and vegetables grown in the…

#DeepSpaceFoodChallenge twitter.com/csa_asc/status…

MEDIA – Developing innovative food production technologies with the #DeepSpaceFoodChallenge — the CSA and @NASA tackle food accessibility in space and on Earth: canada.ca/en/space-agenc…. pic.twitter.com/mrqDBEhHD3

Space Veggies

Last week, NASA astronauts on the International Space Station bit into some fresh-grown radishes that they had grown in orbit.

The radishes, which by coincidence were a New Year’s treat for the ISS crew, were the first vegetables grown and eaten in orbit other than some leafy greens, according to United Press International. The meal is a promising development in NASA’s ongoing efforts to grow food in space, making long-term stays in orbit and beyond a more viable and sustainable endeavor.

The fate of the radishes wasn’t always clear. In early December, a NASA spokesperson declined to tell Futurism whether the astronauts would be allowed to consume any of the radishes.

Space wheat, peas, onions and lettuce… dreams of planting your own food in space have taken a huge leap forward. And it’s all thanks to a small step by a clever new system. How do you grow something in space when there’s no gravity, electromagnetic field or sunlight? For more than 50 years, scientists from different countries…

South of Dakhla, in Morocco, the Agida farm is developing an unusual model of greenhouse cultivation. It is an Economic Interest Group (GIE) created in 2017 on the initiative of the Agricultural Development Agency (ADA), with 5 to 10 hectares of the State's private domain allocated to 15 young people from the Dakhla Oued…

Off-grid food production facility in Yukon 'another step closer' to reality cbc.ca/producing-food…

A cargo capsule carrying seeds from four plant species provided by Taiwan is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) after launching from the U.S. state of Florida on Sunday (Dec. 6). The seeds were among supplies transported by SpaceX using its newly upgraded Dragon spacecraft. They were…

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins harvested the first radishes grown aboard the International Space Station, as part of the Plant Habitat-02 experiment. The experiment, which is part of the ongoing efforts to produce food in space with the aim of supplying the crew during long missions, proved that radishes are…

Earlier this month, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins photographs the first major milestone of the Plant Habitat-02 (PH-02) experiment aboard the International Space Station. The investigation studies the growth of radishes in a microgravity environment. NASA chose the radish because it’s a model plant: both…

Self-sufficiency is a goal of many liveaboard cruisers who sail the world’s oceans, generating their own water and power, writes Erin Carey With limited space and the obvious challenges of salt, wind and motion, many would never entertain the idea of growing their own produce. Yet it can be possible: we spoke to cruisers who…

The future colonization of the Moon and Mars will be conditioned by the possibility of guaranteeing the production of food on their surfaces. Taking a kilo of tomatoes (or any other product) to the Earth's satellite costs a million euro, so eating a salad in space is a very expensive luxury. Therefore, this is currently a…

The future colonization of the Moon and Mars will be conditioned by the possibility of guaranteeing the production of food on their surfaces. Taking a kilo of tomatoes (or any other product) to the Earth's satellite costs a million euro, so eating a salad in space is a very expensive luxury. Therefore, this is currently a…

Abu Dhabi Looks to Desert and Space Farming to Boost Food Supply ... which has attracted vertical farming companies such as AeroFarms LLC.

Aleph Farms, a company that grows quality steaks directly from non-GMO cells, isolated from a living animal – is taking a bold new step toward accelerating extraterrestrial food production, which has been a main barrier for long-term space missions. The company announces the launch of its ‘Aleph Zero’ program. This project will…

Experts say food production needs to increase by 70 per cent in the next 30 years to feed a world population expected to reach 9 billion people. Unfortunately, traditional agriculture is facing increasing scarcity of water due to climate change. Freshwater accounts for only 2 per cent of all water on…

Tupperware Brands announces the issuance of a U.S. patent for PONDS (Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System), a device designed to grow vegetables in low earth orbit with minimal maintenance."We are proud to have received a patent for the unique and novel design of PONDS," said Miguel Fernandez, Chief…

Scientific Secretary Yulia Ukhatova from the Vavilov Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources reports that the Institute’s researches have managed to grow melons and watermelons in high latitudes. The experiment was carried out at a polar station in Apatity in greenhouses, but without additional…

Pietro Alberti, an entrepreneur from Arica, received the support of the Luksic Foundation's Impulso Chileno program to launch an ambitious project: growing tomatoes in a greenhouse in the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world. One of the biggest difficulties he faced when developing the project…

Norwegian researchers are testing a new greenhouse cultivation method which emits very little gas. Norwegian, and global food production, is, after all, a major source of emissions. That's mainly because growers use artificial fertilizers and non-recyclable raw materials. Ketil Stoknes very recently…

Beneath the clear, polycarbonate dome encasing a former hockey arena, Ray Solotki, executive director of the Inuvik Community Greenhouse, tends to flourishing beds of vegetables and flowers. Temperatures in Inuvik, a 3,200-person Canadian town located 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle, can plummet…

Space Worms

If long-term missions to space or even new worlds are to have any chance of success, astronauts will likely need to learn to grow their own food.

That means developing a space version of agriculture. Now, scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the biotech company Pheronym brought the idea one step closer to reality with the discovery that roundworms are just as good at gobbling up pest insects up in space as they are down here, giving future astronauts a new way to protect their crops.

In a successful return-to-space mission, research study results indicate that beneficial insect-killing nematodes (small round worms) can be used in the future for natural control of insect pests when humans are growing crops in space. The research objective was to study entomopathogenic (insect-killing) nematodes (EPNs) foraging and infection dynamics in space onboard the International Space Station (ISS) between December 2019 and January 2020.

These beneficial roundworms may have "what it takes" for controlling pest insects that threaten crops grown aboard during long-term human missions in space. That's the implication of findings from experiments conducted aboard the ISS and published in the journal npj|Microgravity. EPNs are insect parasites used to naturally control insect pests that damage crops, that's why investigating the efficacy of EPNs in a unique environment like the one provided by the ISS (e.g. an apparent state of weightlessness) could help establish successful agriculture and plant protection in space.

Food security is currently one of the main goals in the Middle East and North Africa. They strive to become self-sufficient. These countries often face harsh conditions, with hot and dry or hot and wet climates. The main issue there isn't how to heat the greenhouse, but how to cool and dehumidify it.  With…

The increased salinity of soils, both due to the use of chemical products in agriculture and to climate change, is one of the factors that limit plant development. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), nearly one-fifth of the world's irrigated land is already too…

The Israeli company Arieli Capital and a regional council from the Negev desert in Israel are in talks with officials from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to promote agriculture projects in the desert. The talks began before Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced a normalization agreement between…

The Canadian Space Agency says growing food in the North is similar to growing food in space. It's training people in Gjoa Haven to help research food production in harsh environments.

NASA scientist Max Coleman has been trying to figure out if it’s possible to grow radishes in lunar soil — in his kitchen.

His goal is to figure out whether astronauts could one day grow their own food on the lunar surface — much like Matt Damon’s character in Ridley Scott’s 2015 film “The Martian.”

Coleman chose radishes because “they have been used before in space, and they germinate very, very fast,” according to a NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) statement.