Astronaut food: you’ll eat that too

Our planet is increasingly degraded by humans. Will we need to get our food out of the Earth? Who knows if in the future our food will be the astronaut food?

If we continue to degrade resources as we do today, the future of food will be at risk. Considering the amount of people who die of hunger every year, we can say food is already at risk. Chronic food insecurity is a fact in the world, but more for waste and for production chain losses than for lack of production space. There are many initiatives to find new ways to feed people. The latest one is from NASA and is aimed at, first, feed the astronauts with vegetables planted in space, but who knows if in the future this will be our hope as well?

This lettuce was grown in a greenhouse made of LED specially designed for that purpose. However, just to remember, growing vegetables in LED greenhouses is nothing new, in Japan it is already a reality for at least ten years. The Netherlands also have tests like this.

In addition, other alternatives are being studied. The exploration of new places of production already reached the sea, with greenhouses at the ocean floor. The Italian start-up Ocean Reef Group is responsible for the Nemo’s Garden, which has five underwater greenhouses located in the Mediterranean Sea, on the Italy coast.

These are great options for agricultural development independent of the climatic conditions. The more we try to decrease the environmental impact and increase food accessibility for all people in the world, the more we will gain from the Earth, the space or under the sea.

References: Noctula Channel, WH3, SAPO, The Space Collective, Folha de São Paulo, Hypeness