Chimeric Foodstuffs

[Harold Squared]

In space limited resources and room will encourage us to reconsider food production. A few alternatives I have been thinking about are chimeric plants with enough animal genes to produce meat in their fruit or roots versus synthetic foods compounded from proteins derived from yeasts or similar organisms. A third alternative would be tissue cultures. All would be less messy and more humane, I would think.

 

Thanks in advance for your participation.

[Strange]

In space limited resources and room will encourage us to reconsider food production. A few alternatives I have been thinking about are chimeric plants with enough animal genes to produce meat in their fruit or roots

 

What would be the advantage of that? There are already plant-based foods that are high in protein, fat and pretty much anything else we might get from meat.

[John Cuthber]

One advantage might be that some people prefer beef to tofu.

If you were engineering food you could have the best of both worlds.

[Harold Squared]

Agreed. Vegan food leaves much to be desired to the palates of most people I know. Space travelers should at least be able to take the tastes and textures of Earth with them, since they must leave so much else behind. In order to support morale the crews of nuclear submarines enjoy exceptional dining, by design. The limited space, relative isolation and limited sensory stimulation of the submarine vessel are shared by most near term spacecraft and planetary settlements.

[Endy0816]

I'm not sure the texture of the plant-meat would be correct without electrical stimulation to substitute for exercise. They had to do that with the "lab burger" at any rate. Also not sure how the cell wall or its lack would impact the plant's growth and/or the meat's texture.

 

 

In order to support morale the crews of nuclear submarines enjoy exceptional dining, by design

 

That is not entirely true for submarine food. The vegetables and fruit have a finite shelf life. After a couple weeks, anything green comes from a bag or a can. I've also been onboard when food has run low. You can end up dining on Ketchup soup, ever smaller slices of peperoni on peperoni mini pizzas, then just flour and sugar combinations. Thank FSM for flour and sugar.

[Harold Squared]

Thank you for the voice of candid experience! At least today's USN submariners do not have to deal with diesel fuel contaminating their dwindling rations as used to be the case. You can see the how desirable having fresh food available continually would be. Even in low Earth orbit, green growing plants seem to be important to spacefarers independent of their oxygenating benefits. It probably would not take much current to be equivalent to the amount of exercise of today's average feedlot cattle and I have heard Kobe beef cattle are pampered quite a bit to keep them tender but your point is one I had not considered.