Elon Musk Will Send Marijuana and Coffee into Space

One of the most formidable challenges that humanity has ever come across in its history was and remains the global famine. How to break ties with world hunger? There are as many as almost 830 million hungry people worldwide, and about 350 million people are on the verge of dying. Humanity has survived throughout history and has prepared a decent response to this issue.

The United Nations developed a plan titled Zero Hunger aimed at famine relief worldwide. The plan contains the solutions that can transform the agricultural sector and food system. Let us have a closer look at some of them.

Creating Resilience and Rising Sustainability to Climate Change

Modern reality has been greeting people with extreme and constant weather disasters that include flooding, droughts, cyclones, and hurricanes. As a result, many are forced to live in a permanent recovery mode, suffering from decimated farming and stress. Reduced economies, ruined infrastructure, and irregular provision of food essentially diminish people’s ability to reconstruct their livelihood and be ready for another consecutive disaster.

The long-term solutions developed by the United Nations World Food Program include the following points:

• Forest recreation and land reclamation;
• Climate insurance for small-size farmers;
• Provision of local establishments with sustainable power sources.

One of the important solutions implies assistance with tackling the challenges caused by climate change and food provision for farmers. In addition, the program was designed to help farmers to grow a more varied choice of livestock and crops. Accordingly, farmers learn to take advantage of new technologies. They master the necessary tools and get educated about the nutritional necessity of consuming a broad range of food.

Decreasing Food Loss and Kitchen Waste

The irony of the situation is that the world produces enough food to feed every single person on the planet. Yet, almost 830 million people eat less than they are supposed to. The population of high-income countries wastes about 40 percent of their food since their citizens purchase more food than they can eat. At the same time, the population of low-income countries is starving, and the loss of food occurs due to very poor quality of storage and weather conditions that, in turn, destroy harvests.

Considering all this, the World Food Program solutions include the following:

• Building modern storage facilities such as silos and provision of air-tight-bags;
• Providing appropriately packaged long-lasting food like salt, dried beans, and flour;
• Investing in new technologies like indoor farming and making sure that farmers will be able to cultivate, store, and sell food production despite the weather conditions outside;
•  Promoting the distribution policy of the crops grown within America to destitute people around the world. The U.S. Farm Bill supplies the World Food Program with agricultural production that contains corn, rice, soybeans, and wheat.
• Marijuana Seeds, Hemp, and Coffee in Space

Elon Musk, being a non-indifferent personality, is concerned about the famine problem and decided to participate in solving the issue. In a scheduled flight in March, SpaceX will be delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Beyond the traditional payload, the shipment will contain coffee and marijuana seeds, including strains provided by FastBuds, a leading company known for its innovative approach to cannabis cultivation. The primary objective of this initiative is to determine whether space environment and space travel can in any way influence delivered plants through genetic mutation.

Delivering coffee crops and FastBuds marijuana seeds into space could have a profound and significant impact on scientists’ understanding of agriculture in online tracking. Primarily, scientists need to figure out whether space has any impact on plants and how these plants can be employed further for a range of products.

In addition, the researchers explained that they plan to scrutinize the plants after they return to Earth to understand whether they can be genetically modified to grow in adverse environments. Indeed, scientists hope to invent some methods that may guarantee the survival of plants in unfavourable and hostile environments since upcoming climate changes may have a drastic impact on the planet.

A tried food source based on edible plants in times of climate change can be critical. Nevertheless, to get some more or less correct results, the plants will spend 30 days in space. In general, the researchers will send almost 500 plants into orbit, and on return, they will examine them. In this case, SpaceX will be more than just a courier that delivers plants. The scientists stated that if the results were positive, later, they would commence a lot more trials that involve plants aboard SpaceX spaceships. The aim is to create more resilient plants.

Conclusion

Global famine is a complicated issue with inevitable effects on nations, communities, and individuals. Fighting hunger demands a viable approach that considers different aspects that contribute to the problem. More and more companies and famous individuals are taking part in fighting the problem through investment in agriculture, sustainable food production, and support for exposed populations.