To boldly grow where no one has grown before: Space technology could help grow food in northern Labrador | 24CA News
When the Canadian Space Agency determined to look into the unlikely job of rising meals in outer area, it seemed towards a spot on Earth that faces related rising points: northern Labrador.
Lynn Blackwood, a Labrador dietitian for over 20 years, had the experience the company wanted.
“Think about the growing conditions in space and in the North and some of the constraints for both,” mentioned Blackwood, the Nunatsiavut authorities’s meals safety applications supervisor. “Decreased growing time, decreased temperature, challenges in getting resources to both places, even getting resource people in to fix equipment.”
“The whole goal of the Deep Space Food Challenge is to develop innovative technologies to grow food in space with a component to hope that the technologies developed for space can also be used in a terrestrial application,” mentioned Blackwood, a jury member for the challenge, evaluating concepts which have been submitted to the area company for the problem.
Up to 4 finalists shall be chosen within the coming months and given a $100,000 grant to construct full-scale demonstrations of their meals manufacturing know-how. A grand prize winner shall be chosen subsequent 12 months to obtain $380,000 in grant funding for his or her thought.
Blackwood mentioned she will’t get into specifics about which of the concepts are her favourites simply but, however she’s been wowed by the revolutionary concepts at play.
“In the North, much of the power is generated by diesel, and diesel can give off extra heat, so there’s interesting ways to gather heat that’s coming from a generation plant and be able to power a greenhouse.”
Blackwood mentioned hydroponics play an enormous function in plenty of the concepts, in addition to a deal with non-traditional produce, like spirulina, a nutritious type of algae.
Incorporating options into Nunatsiavut tradition is essential too, she mentioned.
“Innovative ways to grow food married within the food system of the North, where many people follow that traditional lifestyle where they hunt and gather food.”
She mentioned the know-how being developed would make an enormous distinction to Nunatsiavut communities.
“People definitely would like to have more fresh produce available. As you can imagine, weather conditions can be really impactful on delivering fresh produce to the north in the winter time,” she mentioned.
“There’s been times when I’ve been on the coast and in Nunatsiavut, and produce has been delivered and the plane may have come at a time when it wasn’t expected. And then the people who are expecting the freight aren’t notified and the freight is offloaded. And then it’s left there and in the temperature, it’ll freeze.”
Blackwood mentioned that is why infrastructure and system planning can be an essential side of the concepts to contemplate.
“To improve food security, we’re going to need to look at it from a multipronged approach,” mentioned Blackwood. “Food is so much more than just nutrients.”
