Professor Matthew Gilliham, Director, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide.
The Future of Food Off-world and On
Professor Matthew Gilliham
Agricultural research supports long-term space habitation possibilities, while accelerating sustainable food production research for Earth.
In the next five years there will be a new space station orbiting the moon, by the end of the decade a crewed lunar base will have been established, and by 2040 humans will have stepped onto the surface of Mars. These are the aspirations of Earth’s space agencies and, whilst the propulsion systems to reach our off-World targets are well-advanced, critical technologies that will ultimately enable remote human habitation lag far in development.
In particular, the challenge of providing the adequate and varied diet to ensure healthy space explorers is one of the greatest obstacles for mission planners. This is because mass and volume restrictions prevent enough food being taken on the voyage to Mars, and resource resupply from Earth is not a viable option; furthermore, even if enough food could be sent in advance, food stability of essential vitamins and nutrients for longer periods of time is not yet achievable.
Space and Mars missions provide the ultimate microcosm environment in which we will need to achieve sustainable food in a closed loop system. Everything must be supplied from the outside making waste a luxury that cannot be afforded. As such, the lens of space provides the ideal laboratory in which we can innovate to provide new opportunities for achieving sustainability on Earth. It would be remiss to not deploy the enabling technology needed to achieve this for space, here on Earth, long before humans step onto Mars surface 20 plus years from now. In light of this, the goal of supporting long-term space habitation is an opportunity to accelerate the research needed to reach sustainability on Earth.
There is a strong rationale for plants to be the ultimate base material for food production in space due to their autotrophic nature – requiring carbon dioxide, light, water and a minimal set of nutrients to produce nutrients and oxygen to support human life. In return, humans use the carbon fixed by plants as energy and complete the cycle by respiring carbon dioxide. Additionally, the intricate metabolism of plants can provide a platform to produce complex flavour molecules, nutrients, and even biomaterials such as plastics. The innovation required to provide the nutrition and biomaterials to sustain long-term space habitation, and to deploy this technology here on Earth to improve sustainability, is an area where Australia can claim to have the critical mass that would be capable of providing global leadership.
The research needed to sustain human life in space will produce nutrient rich, highly efficient plants, nutritionally fortified plant-based foods and space-ready functional materials and pharmaceuticals – all readily translatable to Earth markets. Developments in modern gene technology and zero-waste plant production in controlled environments will also result. These breakthroughs in the emergent field of plant processing would firmly establish Australian competitiveness as a leader in high-value sustainable agricultural production, as well as enabling the moonshot of the 21st Century.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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