Indoor ‘vertical farming’ could be an answer to urban food needs and shrinking agricultural space – if cost and energy obstacles can be overcome. Already, pioneers are sprouting up in places like Japan, Singapore, and in U.S. university “closed environment agriculture” labs.

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Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on Room to Grow

Tags: Aerofarms, Agricultural Engineering, ASEE Prism magazine, botany, Controlled Environment Agriculture, Cornell School of Integrative Plant Science, Dickson Despommier, farm to table, food supply, green infrastructure, greenhouse, Murat Kacira, Neil Mattson, Plantagon, plants, Plenty, Public Policy, Sky Greens, Sustainability, Tom Gibson, University of Arizona, University of Wyoming, urban agriculture, urban farming, vegetables, vertical farms

In this NASA activity, students in grades 1-8 learn about the challenges of space nutrition and designing food packaging by observing, measuring, comparing, and contrasting the ripening of fruits and vegetables when exposed to air and the effect of chemical treatments to inhibit ripening.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Ripening Fruit in Space

Tags: Aerospace, agriculture, astronauts, Class Activities, fruit, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Mathematics, measurement, NASA, nutrition, observation, ripening, space food, surface area, vegetables