What foodstuffs would you like to see go to space?

[Rhyshaelkan]

The premise is this.

Through the use of asteroidal materials, your organization/government/cabal/company, large structures similar to O'Neil's island 3 habitats are built. Say 20km × 6.366km in dia. for the outermost shell yielding an area 20km² at 1g. Concentric shells are built inside the first at decreasing levels of gravity to maximize land yield(animals and plants do not require beautiful vistas to provide food :D). The innermost shell filled with water for the growth of fish and other sea life.

But I do not want these structures to have any bearing on my question. Short to say we have the land area for whatever tasty foodstuffs you can desire.

So what would you desire to go into space?

Break it down as finely as you desire, genetic strains of beef, onions, tomatoes, different milking animals to yield radically different cheeses. Anything. I am trying to compile a list of such tasty food items.

Variety is the spice of life. Bringing and supporting all these various food producers will serve two important goals. Improving the quality of diet for space bound peoples. And preserving as much diversity of food life from our home planet Earth as we can.

[Rhyshaelkan]

All of these quoted from the ClassicBattletechForum

Marwynn

"The only fish I really eat is in sushi. And the only sushi I eat these days is spicy salmon handrolls. So get a crapton of those buggers.

Kobe beef, specifically the Wagyu cattle. Water Buffalo from the Philippines "Carabao" for its milk, italian plum tomatoes... Rice? I would say Botan or Milagrosa. Green bean strains, bokchoy, tamarinds, sweet white onions, Newfoundland potatoes (sorry Idaho), sweet potatoes, corn, chinese broccoli and cauliflower, baby carrots, and enough wheat to make pasta.

Oh and chicken. Lots of chicken. Also lamb, yaks, and some goats.

For the fruit orchards: Those small oranges, Cebu Mangoes from the Philippines (these are the sweetest frelling yellow mangoes anywhere), Bosc pears, Chinese Fuji Apples, Strawberries, plantains, watermelons, coconuts, honeydew and cantaloupe. Papaya... avocado, ube root, and lychee.

Nobody bring any sharks into space. "

Ruger

"Calamari, Snow Crab, Shrimp, Yellow Corn, Bean Sprouts, Vidalia Onions, Green Peas, Cantaloupe, Cucumber, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Beef, Chicken, Smoked Sausage, Apples, Watermelon, Peaches, Green and Red Bell Pepper, Bannana Pepper, Bannanas, Lettuce, Cheese (especially provolone and Monterrey types), Pepper, Garlic, Chives, Potatoes (NOT sweet), Broccoli, Green Beans, Pork (for roasts, barbeque, bacon, ham, etc.), Salmon, Cabbage, Wheat, Cinnamon, Grapes (preferably seedless varieties)..."

Vash the Stampede

"The most important thing that needs to survive in space for all time is our brewing traditions, except for domestic macro. If you drink that swill, you deserve what you'll get.

So... basically, all the grains and other miscellaneous things (molasses, potatoes, ect) that are used to make that stuff."

Ajax_Wolf

"For food animals, I'd say chicken, sheep, pigs and goats would be best. Cattle require to much space and food from the return on investment to be positive. Cows are single births and take longer to give birth, while sheep using have twins, and sows can have litters 4 times a year with 8-12 piglets per birthing. Goat's milk is actually better for you also. As much as I love a good steak, I don't see cows being raised in a hab.

As for veggies, two shools of thought: one is the multi harvest plant (ie tomatos, peppers and brussel sprouts), and the other is a plant you eat in it's entirely (ie lettuce, cabbage and celery). But since your hab is basically a bunch of phytotrons, you can set whatever conditions you need to grow whatever veggies you want. But you can leave yellow squash and egg plant on Earth when in burns to a cinder."

Sigma-LS

"Lots and lots of spices and peppers. You can take very little and make it tasty with good spices, otherwise eh.

I'm also probably in the minority here but habanero peppers and those little red chile peppers my chinese friends always bring me are a must! Pepper bushes are hardy too.


You know the funny thing is though that you're going to have to deal with a lot of things like fertilizers, pesticides, etc. that are going to be a constant drain on your resources through imports. And you can't fake good soil so you're going to have to take it from somewhere. When there is so much land on earth why would it be feasible to even have anything like that?

Anyway, when given the option of anything and everything, take anything and everything (minus pests like crop fungus and bole weevils etc.)

Honestly who would take celery and lettuce over squash and eggplant though? Actually celery raw has a NEGATIVE net caloric value but is great for flavoring all sorts of dishes. Anything lettuce can do can be done better by Spinach or Mustard Greens or Turnip Greens. I'll give you cabbage though. Going to make some stuffed cabbage tonight now and some spaghetti squash. "

Cannonshop

"Go with needs first: Rice, Beans, tomatoes (all easy to grow with decent yeilds), supplement with grapes. Why Grapes? you've got climate control and can control the chemistry, grapes grow on vines so there's no risky "Big root" problems like you get with most fruit trees. Peas are good too. For meat, Rabbit has a high meat-value for mass (Higher than beef does), same for Gerbils and chickens. If you've got enough spin-gravity, goats produce milk, and are more meat-and-other-products efficient than beef as well (and on the right diet, Goat tastes like Venison-which makes sense, the North American deer is from the same family of animal...) Pork, if you're not going Kosher.



Come to think of it, GM your crops, and you might be able to have "apple vines" and "Pear Vines" or something. People have a habit of filling whatever empty space they have (I've witnessed this-a buddy moves out of a studio apt. into a condo, and somehow he can't find places for all his shit) so as big as your orbital is, it's probably still going to have volume issues.

Peppers are not only a good spice, they're good by themselves, and provide some very useful nutritional value."

Maddyfish

"Catfish and Tilapia for food fish, hogs, turkey, goats, for meat, bonus-goat milk and cheese. Soybeans, potatos, green beans, spinach, and rice as the primary veg crops-bonus Soy milk. Hemp, not weed, hemp for clothes and all the other stuff that can be made from it. Raspberries, strawberries, tomatos, apples, and oranges for fun. And of course honeybees. You must have honeybees for pollination-bonus honey."

Shin Yodama

"Balti's, Indian Curries, Chinese Curries, Thai Curries, Black Bean Sauce, Chicken Satay "


Just thought I would share their thoughts here.

[moonus111]

I always wonder if we will get space fatties. Men & women who throw caution to the wind and let their bones rot in the deepness of space. Food being so plentiful because of the abundant energy of the sun, they eat like cows eat grass. This constant gorging and lack of gravity takes its toll on their form and changes them into giant floating bags.

I think Jabba the hut will be human in the future. Although, its just one possibility. I like to think the best will happen and I'm just babbling. When they build it I want farming on earth to be phased out economically, but the food I want is soilent green, naw I'm joking. Poking fun at the spirulina stuff.

The food I would really want is shark, just imagine space sharks in 0g, low pressure water. Better yet we could really make a bang and put it in a movie. That's an awesome idea! SPACE SHARKS

Also I have a passionate belief that life has a more important role to play in space than it currently is portrayed. Plants/Animals can be domesticated and used to serve more purposes than food, and air. Reality dictates that they are required to make beauty, and there is no reason that man alone should populate the stars.

Examples:
-Bees (although there are ways of getting around the pollination problem)
-algae (can be used for terraforming)
-dolphins (entertainment - imagine the oddity of a dolphin in a floating bubble tank everybody will want to see it)
-whales same reason
-companion animals
-an animal that dies under very slight radiation may be used as a redundant indicator
-The Millennial Project suggested Oaks on the moon would grow extremely tall.
-Birds can be used for 0g environments that have air for what purpose I can only imagine
-Last there's no way we're ever going to be able to Mine Jupiter-Neptue-Uranus-Saturn without some form of life doing some kind of work. The reason to mine these planets is for the extreme amount of gasses available. You know for a giganitc gas filled space station millions of miles across to hold the trillions of people who are going to come.

I forgot to mention the brandings of moon cheese that will crop up.