Locavores Rejoice

We’re This Close to Being Able to Grow Fruits and Vegetables on Mars

Red sauce planet.
Red sauce planet. Photo: NASA/Getty Images

Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario say they’ve developed a technique that may eventually allow scientists and farmers to grow fruits and vegetables like strawberries and tomatoes on Mars. They say the technique involves LED lighting optimized for different kinds of plant productivity, tweaking different wavelengths for different kinds of crops. Researchers even presented three different shades of lettuce grown under three kinds of LEDs, which produced three different-colored leaves, and that will definitely make for a really attractive salad. Though the integrated tech to make mixed salads on Mars is still a few years away, the really bad news is that it’ll still cost $47 billion dollars to send a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch to the red planet. [CBC via Daily Meal]

We’re This Close to Being Able to Grow Fruits and Vegetables on