MMM Classics Year 7: MMM #s 61-70

Lunar Industrialization: Part Vby Peter KokhSettlers can’t live by bread alone! Farm “Pods”can churn out many other needed productsRelevant READINGS FROM Backissues of MMM[included in MMM Classics #1]MMM #4 APR 87 p9 “Paper Chase”, Peter Kokh[included in MMM Classics #2]MMM #13 MAR 88 p8 “Apparel”, Peter KokhMMM #15 MAY 88 p5 “Threads”, Aleta Jackson[included in MMM Classics #4]MMM #40 NOV 90 p6 “METHANE”, Peter Kokh[included in MMM Classics #5]MMM #48 SEP ‘91 p8 “Naturally Colored Cotton”, P. Kokh[included in MMM Classics #6]MMM #55 MAY 92 p9 “Agri-Garments”, Michael ThomasINTRODUCTIONTo date, Experimental Lunar Agriculture has concentratedon the production of fresh vegetables needing little or noprocessing (lettuce and salad stuffs) and on such staples as thepotato (Ted Tibbits at the University of Wisconsin Biotron)and wheat and soybeans (Bill Easterwood at EPCOT Center).But this is just a start. Not only will Lunar farm podseventually produce far more food crops than those experimentedupon to date, but it will be called upon to grow cropsfor quite other purposes. Fiber for clothing, toweling, andfurnishings will be especially important. Household preparations,cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and chemical feedstocks willtake their place as well in the agricultural sector of the settlementeconomy. Anything organic that consists in major fractionof lunar-sourceable oxygen is potentially cheaper to growon site rather than import from Earth. Different frontiercommunities will have their specialties, and trade betweenthem should be brisk.As an industrial activity, lunar agriculture will start as“small potatoes” yielding “produce” only that has to be “homemade” into meals. Farm pods will be highly automated, savinglabor for mining, materials processing and manufacturing ofbuilding materials and energy stuffs for export as well as foruse on the frontier to defray imports.Food processing, which in America employs far morepeople than does food growing, will be insignificant at first,starting up essentially as part-time after hours cottage industry.As the number of people on the frontier grows, economies ofscale in other areas of industrial activity will gradually make itpossible to justify a growing primary employment in the foodindustry. Condiments, sauces, gravies, preserves, baked goods,precooked packaged meals, will no longer be flea market itemsbut take their place beside “produce” in “grocery” stores.The demand will be augmented by the growth in thenumber of small outposts of humanity - on the Moon, in space,in space ships, among the asteroids etc. Small incipientoutposts would be stuck in the “salad bar” mode indefinitely ifit were not for trade with larger more agriculturally diversifiedsettlements on the Moon, out in L5, or elsewhere.Agriculture will slowly emerge as a major sector ofthe industrializing lunar economy. To turn an old phrase on itshead, pioneers can not eat, nor clothe themselves, by metal,glass, and ceramic alone!Cotton Plant ByproductsIn a response to a question about the possibility ofgrowing cotton to meet clothing needs, Dr. Tibbits gave thesort of horse-blindered response typical of a specialist unawareof the universe at large. “That would mean withdrawals fromthe lunar biosphere, making it inefficient. We can’t do that!”To the contrary, if a non-luxury settlement need canbe met with an agricultural product that is 50% lunar oxygenby weight, and the only remaining viable option is to importsomething with 0% lunar content, then net efficiency of thefarming unit be damned. It is the gross efficiency of the Settlementwith all its systems that is the bottom line.The “synthesis position” here is that any and all farmproducts withdrawn from the settlement’s biosphere must beprocessed, treated, and fabricated solely in ways that allow theitem, material, or preparation to be eventually recycled and/orreturned to the biosphere by composting. This holds of fibers,fabrics, and dyestuffs as well as of cosmetics and householdpreparations. We need to keep our eyes on this larger picture.From the point of view of the plant species chosen forcultivation, in the interests of efficiency we ought to be lookingfor suitable ways to use the parts of the plant not normallyeaten, as well as ways to derive food and other products fromthe composting remnant waste biomass. “Waste not, want not”must be the watchword of Lunar Agri-Business.It seems quaintly out of touch, however, given all theongoing progress in plant breeding, genetic manipulation, andbiomass treatment, to reject a suggested crop on the groundsthat too large a portion of the individual plant does not servethe primary purpose for growing it. What is to prevent therecombinant DNA researcher from putting into future cottonplants genetic instructions that make the rest of the planta) edible; b) a source of pharmaceutical or other desireablecompounds? The cotton plant - its not just for Haines anymore!Recombinant DNA opportunities aide, three moreconservative measures suggest themselves. First it is possibleto develop varieties to maximize yield and minimize “waste”.Second, we ought to be looking at the waste of the unalteredplant as potential feed stock for useful by-products.Third, biomass waste for which no useful purpose hasbeen found does not have to go on the compost heap to produce“nothing but methane and mushrooms”, useful as both may be.In Wisconsin, Biotronics Technologies (W226 N555BEastmound Dr., Waukesha WI 53186) has developed - forNASA - “biodigesters” which turn “waste” biomass into anMoon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 7 - Republished January 2006 - Page 51