Posted by
Hemos
on from the soylnet-green-is-made-from-people dept.
ihnm writes "Science Daily has a story on the harvesting of the first soybeans grown in a space station. Does this mean McDonald's will start selling Space Burgers?"
Since a near-vegan diet uses resources efficiently, that's what long-duration space travellers and colonists will be eating. Successfully growing soybeans in space is a big deal.
soya - cows - burger - major waste
by
DrSkwid
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Feeding soy beans to cows to make meat is one of the grossest misuse of resources in farming.
5,000 gallons of water per pound of beef.
When water is becoming a scarce commodity it makes no sense.
-- There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Re:soya - cows - burger - major waste
by
gerf
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I was born and raised on a farm, so i know a bit about this.
If water is scarce, it is more expensive. So, cattle, and other water intensive things are usually done where there's a lotta water. like the midwest. You don't see nearly as many cattle around in the desert anymore, do ya
The real problem with water and food useage isn't that there isn't enough. God no. It's getting the food to the people who need it. there's two reasons this is hard
1.) We'd have to ship all this food/water hundreds and thousands of miles through bad areas, with little roads or rails. think Somalia here.
The people who need it can't afford it, and we can't just give away everything we have all the time. we're not a socialist nation, us americans (we have the biggest surplus of food though).
So, if you want to become a vegetarian, this is truly the right reason. but please, be sensical about it, and don't talk about what you don't know
Good source for interstellar travel
by
(trb001)
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I know they say they're researching this to make soybeans "cheaper and better for the consumer", but I gotta believe that they're second goal (if not their primary) is to find a way to grow food during interstellar travel. That's always been one of the biggest problems facing astronauts, you COULD get to Mars, but it would take 10 years and you wouldn't be able to pack that much food. If they could grow food, though, people can live off of an all vegetable diet. Heck, you can breed animals given a renewable source of vegetable food for them.
I allways knew the space program was run by those damn liberals. I mean, why would they be growing soy beans? I'll tell you why:
Tofu!
They want our astronauts to eat Tofu. And drink soy milk. And eat "healthy". Dammit, what happened to feeding them steak. You think Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and then went for a nice vegetarian stir fry with extra tofu? You think Neil Armstrong was missing his veggy shake while wandering around the moon. I think not!
I say we start a campaign to get some cows up there. Our boys need meat!
If even our astronauts start eating tofu then all is lost. "Come on dear, even Buzz Aldrin eats tofu, why can't you?" I'll have no excuses left. I'll have to start eating that stuff. Aarrgh!
Come to think of it, can we get them to grow some hopps up there?
-- People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
That's not what the UN thinks
by
DrSkwid
·
· Score: 3, Informative
One possible starting point is to stipulate a minimum amount of renewable water per head of the population, and to treat countries having less than this as "water short". At levels of internal renewable water availability of less than 1,000 cubic meters per head, FAO regards water as a severe constraint on socio-economic development and environmental protection. It has been estimated that 20 countries will be at or below this level by the year 2000 (FAO, 1995). Most of these are in North Africa and the Middle East. At levels of water availability of less than 2,000 cu.m. per head, water is regarded as a potentially serious constraint, and a major problem in drought years. 40 countries will fall into this category by 2000 (FAO, 1993).
For more information see http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/homeaglw.stm
-- There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Feed the world - burn your surplus grain.
by
DrSkwid
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
So, if you want to become a vegetarian, this is truly the right reason. but please, be sensical about it, and don't talk about what you don't know
tbh I couldn't agree more but you do miss one vital aspect. AFAIK Meat is more perishable than grain.
I went vegan for these very reasons. Meat production is wasteful, it was only later that I became concerned with the cruelty.
The destruction of food in the EU is to maintain a false market because govt. is in the hands of the landowner, not the citizen.
In ancient Rome food was free, the Emperor was expected to provide for his capital city. Now that we are civilised, the landowners use penury and starvation as a threat instead of a one way trip to the colosseum.
And for once we can, in all honestly, blame the French - for that is the legacy of the Norman Conquest - modern parliament.
-- There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Re:If this a permanent solution, why does it say:
by
anthony_dipierro
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Because on a small scale you aren't going to get enough water out of the dirt to do anything more than survive.
Right. But that directly contradicts the original statement, that "Solar-powered desalination plants exist. They're just not commercially implemented because... drum roll... *anyone* can do it."
They're more likely not commercially implemented because... drum roll... the solution is more expensive than other solutions.
Scientists Shocked at Data
by
selectspec
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Scientists scramble to understand the revelations exposed by the data gathered in this experiment: At nearly 15 million dollars per soy bean, growing soy beans in space is really expensive compared to growing them on the ground.
This shockwave rippling through NASA has put into doubt future projects, such as the herding goats on the moon project, the orbiting retirment home, and NASA's holy grail, the Europa Mineral Water bottling company.
Slashdot Mirror
Lose weight, eat space burgers.
Never mind the mass.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
Feeding soy beans to cows to make meat is one of the grossest misuse of resources in farming.
5,000 gallons of water per pound of beef.
When water is becoming a scarce commodity it makes no sense.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I know they say they're researching this to make soybeans "cheaper and better for the consumer", but I gotta believe that they're second goal (if not their primary) is to find a way to grow food during interstellar travel. That's always been one of the biggest problems facing astronauts, you COULD get to Mars, but it would take 10 years and you wouldn't be able to pack that much food. If they could grow food, though, people can live off of an all vegetable diet. Heck, you can breed animals given a renewable source of vegetable food for them.
--trb
I allways knew the space program was run by those damn liberals. I mean, why would they be growing soy beans? I'll tell you why:
Tofu!
They want our astronauts to eat Tofu. And drink soy milk. And eat "healthy". Dammit, what happened to feeding them steak. You think Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and then went for a nice vegetarian stir fry with extra tofu? You think Neil Armstrong was missing his veggy shake while wandering around the moon. I think not!
I say we start a campaign to get some cows up there. Our boys need meat!
If even our astronauts start eating tofu then all is lost. "Come on dear, even Buzz Aldrin eats tofu, why can't you?" I'll have no excuses left. I'll have to start eating that stuff. Aarrgh!
Come to think of it, can we get them to grow some hopps up there?
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
From here
One possible starting point is to stipulate a minimum amount of renewable water per head of the population, and to treat countries having less than this as "water short". At levels of internal renewable water availability of less than 1,000 cubic meters per head, FAO regards water as a severe constraint on socio-economic development and environmental protection. It has been estimated that 20 countries will be at or below this level by the year 2000 (FAO, 1995). Most of these are in North Africa and the Middle East. At levels of water availability of less than 2,000 cu.m. per head, water is regarded as a potentially serious constraint, and a major problem in drought years. 40 countries will fall into this category by 2000 (FAO, 1993).
For more information see
http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/homeaglw.stm
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
So, if you want to become a vegetarian, this is truly the right reason. but please, be sensical about it, and don't talk about what you don't know
tbh I couldn't agree more but you do miss one vital aspect. AFAIK Meat is more perishable than grain.
I went vegan for these very reasons. Meat production is wasteful, it was only later that I became concerned with the cruelty.
The destruction of food in the EU is to maintain a false market because govt. is in the hands of the landowner, not the citizen.
In ancient Rome food was free, the Emperor was expected to provide for his capital city. Now that we are civilised, the landowners use penury and starvation as a threat instead of a one way trip to the colosseum.
And for once we can, in all honestly, blame the French - for that is the legacy of the Norman Conquest - modern parliament.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Because on a small scale you aren't going to get enough water out of the dirt to do anything more than survive.
Right. But that directly contradicts the original statement, that "Solar-powered desalination plants exist. They're just not commercially implemented because ... drum roll ... *anyone* can do it."
They're more likely not commercially implemented because ... drum roll ... the solution is more expensive than other solutions.
Scientists scramble to understand the revelations exposed by the data gathered in this experiment: At nearly 15 million dollars per soy bean, growing soy beans in space is really expensive compared to growing them on the ground.
This shockwave rippling through NASA has put into doubt future projects, such as the herding goats on the moon project, the orbiting retirment home, and NASA's holy grail, the Europa Mineral Water bottling company.
Someone you trust is one of us.