{"id":1597,"date":"2018-04-25T05:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jansgephardt.com\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2018-04-25T02:42:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T07:42:00","slug":"sustainable-protein-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jansgephardt.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/25\/sustainable-protein-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable protein–in SPACE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

If\u00a0meat is an unsustainable protein source<\/a><\/b>, what could replace it?<\/p>\n

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I ask the question because, unfortunately,\u00a0meat production from livestock is an extremely resource-intensive exercise<\/a><\/b>.\u00a0There literally are not enough resources on Planet Earth<\/a><\/b>\u00a0to feed everyone in the world\u00a0a protein-rich, Western-style diet<\/a><\/b>. You\u00a0don’t have to be vegan to look at the facts<\/b>\u00a0and figure that out.<\/p>\n

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One of the most pernicious myths about meat<\/b>, in my opinion, is\u00a0the idea that confined animal feeding operations (abbreviated CAFOs) are more efficient and less expensive than less intensive farming methods<\/a><\/b>. Say what you will about\u00a0pollution<\/a><\/b>,\u00a0antibiotic resistance<\/a><\/b>, and\u00a0other serious problems<\/a><\/b>, its proponents argue, at the end of the day,\u00a0CAFOs produce more meat, more efficiently<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

Well,\u00a0only if you leave out several, really important costs, and only look at market price<\/a><\/b>, it appears.\u00a0Kernels of truth may be embedded in those myths, but they don’t stand up well to scrutiny<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

It turns out\u00a0varying degrees of rather large difference could be made if we Westerners made relatively small adjustments to our diets<\/a><\/b>. My April blog posts have mostly been about Spaceship Earth,\u00a0but questions raised on this terrestrial ball grow more crucial on the Final Frontier<\/b>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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The designers of the Bernal Sphere in the 1970s envisioned intensive agriculture as the way to feed space colonists. They didn’t know then what we know all too well now. Painting by\u00a0Rick Guidice<\/a><\/b>,\u00a0NASA Ames Research Center.<\/a><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I recently gave\u00a0Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham, AKA James S. A. Corey<\/a><\/b>,\u00a0a hard time about the diet of fungi and fermentation on their fictional Ceres<\/a><\/b>, but I’ve done much of the same research they likely did. I think\u00a0they didn’t “sell” their Ceres diet in a very appealing manner, possibly to make an artistic point\u00a0<\/b>about the desperate awfulness of life on Ceres.<\/p>\n

Truth is, many\u00a0innovative ways are being developed to use both fungi and fermentation in food production<\/a><\/b>. This includes\u00a0the creation of milk that is molecularly identical to cow-sourced milk, and logically leads to many other dairy products, made from yeast and sugars<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Cow-free dairy products–brought to you by\u00a0fungi and fermentation<\/b>–with some help from\u00a0Perfect Day Foods<\/a><\/b>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

When you put it that way,\u00a0life on Ceres might be grim and desperate, but there’d be ice cream!\u00a0<\/b>(Well, there\u00a0SHOULD be<\/i>).\u00a0Lactose-free<\/a><\/b>, to boot! Such a deal! This doesn’t answer\u00a0where the sugars come from, although there’s a variety of options<\/a><\/b>. But the innovations don’t stop with dairy products.<\/p>\n