Food in the Sides

[Kishiria]

I was thinking about food production on the Sides and how it would be different from on Earth.

Much though we see cattle on some of them, it's unlikely that the good ol' beef burger would be a staple as it is here in North America. Cattle require a lot of grazing land and immense amounts of water.

So what would they cultivate? It's possible that vegetarianism would be more widespread since meat is going to be pricier given the lack of land and disposable water. Even chickens use up a lot of water. Swine and sheep don't, but with them there is the issue of venting all the methane they generate. Goats would be handy because not only can they be eaten for meat, they can be milked quite profitably.

It also struck me that organic farming will be the norm since in the agriculture rings there wouldn't be a problem with all the antagonistic insects, fungi and parasites there would be on Earth.

Any other thoughts?

[Wingnut]

There is one answer to the cattle issue as far as being used for beef goes. In episode 1 (or was it 2?) of 0080 we see Al and his friends eating burgers as part of the school lunch. However only the larger kid seemed to like them so it seems that although there are adequate substitutes for beef in the colonys, it's not popular with everyone compared to the real thing.

[Mwulf]

Insofar as Gundam is concerned, I've no idea.

With the original concept of the O'Neil colonies, however, the idea was for a large ring of smaller rotating compartments outside the populated colony to grow food. Mostly vegetables, I would imagine. In a lower-gravity environment, plants would grow much, much larger. And, as you've stated, every part of the environment would be strictly controlled.

I'm somewhat doubt that livestock would EVER be a serious food source in space. It requires far too much physical room that is simply too expensive. Any meat would be, like it or not, synthetic in origin.

[Imperial]

We already know there's a fair amount of food production going on in the colonies. Operation Stardust hinged on that whole fact--by impairing the Earth's farmland, the Delaz Fleet was trying to give the colonies greater influence by forcing the Earth to depend on them for food. Too bad that backfired...

The idea is not without precedent. Junius Seven (which comes from the Cosmic Era, but bear with me) was described as an agricultural colony. UC could have a similar institution.

Of course, that doesn't really answer the question of meat. We know the colonies make food but not what kind.

We do see cattle Texas colony during Amuro's battle with M'Quve. Granted, Texas was a theme park.

What do we get from this? Not a whole lot. There are a lot of pieces here and there, but nothing cohesive. Really, all we can do is guess. Now, with that said, I would agree that any meat we see in the colonies is likely synthetic in nature. There isn't enough room for it to be feasiible or practical. I imagine tofurkey and the like is in vogue.

[Ryujin]

In Western sci-fi, the classic meat sources for space habitats are usually rabbits & carp.

There's also Textured Vegetable Protein and other meat analogues, highly likely given the use of hydroponics for maximizing acreage & that just about every variable in a space farm can be accurately controlled, including sunlight. The farms would also be an important part of the habitat's air recycling system.

[Jynx]

Don't forget that even with technology we have now, scientists are able to produce small pieces of meat in labs. On a large scale, lab grown meat could completely supplant 'natural' sources.

[Kavik Ryx]

Couple of things. First about the Methane, Colonies probably have sufficient ventilation to deal with that problem. Also you'd expect that they could recycle the methane to create water and CO2 for the plants. As for beef, a colony devoted to Cattle raising is a possibility, in fact, it was stated that Texas was utilized for the raising of livestock as well as recreation. Also keep in mind that colonies can be constructed to provide greater efficiency of space. Besides, the Argama has to get there supply of hamburgers from somewhere.

[Ascension]

The Texas beef was probably a very expensive luxury food, given the problems with raising cattle aboard a colony noted above and also that they would have to keep the cattle population aboard the colony large enough to make the tourists happy at all times. As noted in several places above, the "hamburgers" depicted in the series could very well be veggie burgers of various sorts.

[Kishiria]

Don't forget that even with technology we have now, scientists are able to produce small pieces of meat in labs. On a large scale, lab grown meat could completely supplant 'natural' sources.

Except that there is (1) no mention of this in Gundam at all, so I'm trying to base this on what we see and hear in the show and (2) despite what futurists have liked to speculate, what people want in their food is steering wildly away from things like vat-grown meat and genetically modified vegetables towards more natural and organic products.

I suspect the burgers we see are textured vegetable protein (see Boca Burgers). They're pretty good, actually.

[Phantomexe87]

Veggie burgers? No wonder the Zeon wanted to conquer Earth so badly. Still, maybe the Lunarians do some farming? they sure have enough land for it, all they have to do is dome it. Give new meaning to the relation between cows and the moon.

[Imperial]

Veggie burgers? No wonder the Zeon wanted to conquer Earth so badly. Still, maybe the Lunarians do some farming? they sure have enough land for it, all they have to do is dome it.

Those would be some sickly cattle. An organism tends not to grow as strong under weaker gravity.

In fact, I think it's been insinuated that the moon is lightly populated for that reason.

[Sabersonic]

Well from what I'm reading in this thread, typical live stock such as sheep and cattle are probably out of the question to answer the question of meat on the Sides. However what about fish and other types of sea food as a source of protein outside soy and such other plants?

Omega-3 is suppose to be the good fat right?

[Ascension]

Hey, that's a good idea. You could probably raise a good number of fish in the "sky lakes"... if the light being reflected through them wasn't too much for the fish to tolerate.