Space Gardening? Ohio State Creates Food-production System for Future NASA Missions

The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

By MAURICIO ESPINOZA

WOOSTER, Ohio -- Say you are on Mars and fancy a salad. Unless the Curiosity rover can make an unexpected find of fresh romaine somewhere on the dusty Red Planet, you are looking at a nine-month trip to the nearest produce aisle on Earth. A better option? Grow the salad yourself.
That's exactly the approach NASA is taking as it plans for future manned expeditions to places like the moon or Mars, where food availability will be a significant challenge. Joining this mission is a team of Ohio State University researchers and students who are helping NASA figure out the best way to grow food aboard space exploration units.
The team, from the university's Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (FABE), designed and built a food-production system for NASA's Deep Space Habitat (DSH) -- a space module with living quarters, workspaces and laboratories that is expected to enable human exploration in faraway environments.
"Our system is automated so that the crew doesn't hve to spend too much time taking care of the plants," said Peter Ling, an associate professor in FABE and faculty advisor in the project. "The system controls irrigation and monitors plant temperature and health. At the bottom of the unit there is a weight plate that detects water leakage and water loss by plants, and also estimates growth.
"The idea is that this unit will one day be a regenerative life-support system not just for growing food, but also for purifying the air, producing oxygen and cleaning wastewater."
The system was developed as part of NASA's 2011-2012 eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge. The program provides grants to university teams to design and produce functional products of interest to the DSH project. Ohio State's proposal was accepted and funded in June 2011, and the prototype was delivered and demonstrated at Houston's Johnson Space Center in July 2012.
The food-production system is small because of space constraints in the DSH. It consists of an 11- by 18-inch metal plate topped by a plastic plant growth tray -- outfitted with a watering tube, computer-controlled valves and a variety of sensors to monitor growing conditions. A total of eight of these plates can fit in the DSH's circular plant atrium area, which is located between the module's first and second levels. Because soil is too heavy to carry into space, plants -- small vegetables such as lettuce, herbs and radishes -- grow in a nutrient solution, like in a hydroponic system.
"Food production will become a critical component of a life-support system as longer-duration missions take astronauts off Earth and make resupply of consumables more challenging," said Gioia Massa, a postdoctoral fellow in NASA's Surface Systems Division. "Launching food into space is expensive, but seeds are small and have a low mass, so producing food will become more cost-effective over long durations and distances. In addition, growing plants will also help recycle the atmosphere and provide psychological benefits for a crew, both as living organisms and as fresh produce."
Four undergraduate students -- Henry Boucherle, Deborah Bleasdale, Anupria Chetal and Mason Young -- led the development of the food-production system. Ling, Jay Martin and Gönül Kaletunç were their faculty advisors. Also assisting in the project were design engineers Michael Klingman, Christopher Gecik and Chad Draper.
"It was awesome to go to Houston and see the NASA facilities and the projects they are working on," said Boucherle, a biological engineering major from Avon Lake, Ohio, who graduated last June. "We learned a lot of things that expanded our education beyond classroom experience. We had meetings with NASA, learning about their expectations and making decisions that were best for them and the project. It's great to know that I contributed to something NASA will try to make work and use."
NASA is testing the Ohio State system and many other DSH technologies from Sept. 10-21 at Johnson Space Center, Massa said. A crew of four is living and working in the habitat, communicating with a mission control center and simulating a deep-space mission. The crew is comparing low-tech, manual plant-production systems with the automated Ohio State system.
"We have three different types of lettuce, an Asian salad green and two types of radishes growing in the plant atrium," she said. "The OSU system will grow 'Outredgeous' lettuce, a red leaf lettuce that not only tastes great but could provide important antioxidants for the crew." Massa added that the environmental data Ohio State's food-production system collects will allow NASA scientists to better understand the plant growth environment and develop improved growth systems in the future.

I saw this online and had to share it. My family was actually having a discussion about deep-space travel last week and the thing which puzzled us was "how will astronauts get oxygen?" I broached the opinion that they would have to find a way to use plants for it. We just didn't see how they would be able to take enough plants to meet their needs. It is true that there is still work to be done; however, we are another step closer to deep space and agriculture will lead the way!

Mission Accomplished

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped take us past our goal of 1000 pageviews this year! Please continue to check in and find out about issues facing the most important industry in the world: agriculture! Tell your friends and family about us and let's see if we can break 1500 by December 31!

Thank you again and have a nice day!

Study questions how much better organic food is

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Patient after patient asked: Is eating organic food, which costs more, really better for me? Unsure, Stanford University doctors dug through reams of research to find out -- and concluded there's little evidence that going organic is much healthier, citing only a few differences involving pesticides and antibiotics.
Eating organic fruits and vegetables can lower exposure to pesticides, including for children -- but the amount measured from conventionally grown produce was within safety limits, the researchers reported Monday. Nor did the organic foods prove more nutritious.
"I was absolutely surprised," said Dr. Dena Bravata, a senior research affiliate at Stanford and long-time internist who began the analysis because so many of her patients asked if they should switch. "There are many reasons why someone might choose organic foods over conventional foods," from environmental concerns to taste preferences, Bravata stressed. But when it comes to individual health, "there isn't much difference."
Her team did find a notable difference with antibiotic-resistant germs, a public health concern because they are harder to treat if they cause food poisoning. Specialists long have said that organic or not, the chances of bacterial contamination of food are the same, and Monday's analysis agreed. But when bacteria did lurk in chicken or pork, germs in the non-organic meats had a 33 percent higher risk of being resistant to multiple antibiotics, the researchers reported Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
That finding comes amid debate over feeding animals antibiotics, not because they're sick but to fatten them up. Farmers say it's necessary to meet demand for cheap meat. Public health advocates say it's one contributor to the nation's growing problem with increasingly hard-to-treat germs. Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, counted 24 outbreaks linked to multidrug-resistant germs in food between 2000 and 2010. The government has begun steps to curb the nonmedical use of antibiotics on the farm.
Organic foods account for 4.2 percent of retail food sales, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It certifies products as organic if they meet certain requirements including being produced without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, or routine use of antibiotics or growth hormones.
Consumers can pay a lot more for some organic products but demand is rising: Organic foods accounted for $31.4 billion sales last year, according to a recent Obama administration report. That's up from $3.6 billion in 1997.
The Stanford team combed through thousands of studies to analyze the 237 that most rigorously compared organic and conventional foods. Bravata was dismayed that just 17 compared how people fared eating either diet while the rest investigated properties of the foods themselves.
Organic produce had a 30 percent lower risk of containing detectable pesticide levels. In two studies of children, urine testing showed lower pesticide levels in those on organic diets. But Bravata cautioned that both groups harbored very small amounts -- and said one study suggested insecticide use in their homes may be more to blame than their food.
Still, some studies have suggested that even small pesticide exposures might be risky for some children, and the Organic Trade Association said the Stanford work confirms that organics can help consumers lower their exposure.
CSPI's DeWaal noted that difference, but added that the issue is more complicated. Some fruits and vegetables can harbor more pesticide residue than others -- she listed peaches from Chile as topping a recent testing list. Overall levels have dropped in North American produce over the last decade as farms implemented some new standards addressing child concerns, she said. "Parents with young children should consider where their produce is coming from," DeWaal said, calling types grown in the U.S. or Canada "a safer bet" for lower pesticide levels.
As for antibiotics, some farms that aren't certified organic have begun selling antibiotic-free meat or hormone-free milk, to address specific consumer demands, noted Bravata. Her own preference is to buy from local farmers in hopes of getting the ripest produce with the least handling.
That kind of mixed approach was evident in a market in the nation's capital Thursday, where Liz Pardue of Washington said she buys organic "partially for environmental reasons." Pardue said she doesn't go out of her way to shop organic, but if she does, it's to buy mostly things that are hard to wash like berries and lettuce.
Michelle Dent of Oxon Hill, Md., said she buys most of her groceries from regular chain stores but gets her fruit from organic markets: "It's fresh; you can really taste it."
Anna Hamadyk of Washington said she buys only organic milk because she has a young son. "I would love to buy everything organic, but it's just too much money," said Hamadyk, who also shops at local farmers markets.
** Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson contributed to this report.
** EDITOR'S NOTE -- Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Frankly I was surprised by how balanced this article is. In many reports such as this, there is a large bias against “natural” and Organic growing methods. I also share Dr. Bravata’s shock at the results of the study. I, like many people, always assumed that the nutrient quality of Organic food was higher than that of non-organic food. There are a few things we should take note of, however. First, that non-organic food is more likely to cause health problems due to the fact that when bacteria are present, they are more likely to be resistant to antibiotics. Second, antibiotics are NOT usually fed to make animals gain better. They are used as a therapeutic regimen to prevent disease. In addition, over 70% of feedlots have a training regimen, conducted by a veterinarian, for their personnel regarding antibiotic use (USDA National Animal Health Monitoring Study, 1999). On the flip side, although this low level dosage does seem to prevent major health problems, it is also causing bacterial resistance, thus requiring ever more powerful antibiotics. It is probably time to find a better solution to this dilemma, before consumers decide it is not worth the health risk.

I hope this post was good food for thought. If you have an idea for a solution to “the Antibiotic Dilemma,” please comment or e-mail me. luke.agzine.coomer@gmail.com.

Have a nice day!

National Forest

Last month, on the way back from the Oregon State Fair, I passed the Wallowa Whitman National Forest and I noticed something sad. As you cross the border of the National Forest the United States Forest Services' management plan becomes apparent: there isn't one. Dead trees litter the forest floor, lean on each other and live trees, underbrush creeps over everything, roads are not maintained and the trees that are alive are extremely cramped and unhealthy. I was shocked at the atrocious health of one of our national landmarks! The Forest Service is here to take care of the National Forests, not allow them to decay into dumps! It is small wonder that we are afraid of even one careless match or cigarette butt: one spark and the entire forest would go up in flames, simply because someone said "Let nature take its course." The travel management plan which the USFS is trying to implement int the Wallowa Whitman will not help matters. By closing half of the roads in the forest, there will be no way to get in fight wildfires, resulting in an even worse mess. Man, for good or ill, has an impact on his environment and we must manage it if we, and that environment, are to survive. Without management, such as logging, the forests today are both a blessing and a curse to us. A wildfire puts everyone in the area in danger, both of life and their livelihood. If we were allowed to log the forest, within limits, our economy would improve, the forest would be healthier and we would have better recreation opportunities. The USFS needs to be reminded that it is an agency of a government by the people, of the people and for the people, tasked with the stewardship of land owned, not by the USFS, but by us! We depend on the forest for grazing, firewood, lumber, recreation, hunting, fishing and more; it is in our best interest to ensure its health.