Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 19:31:51 -0700
From: Mark Eidemiller (skylab@e-z4tag.net)
Subject: Monotonous, isn't it....

How many unsubs does that make?  Five?

With the nick crisis over, things should be getting better.  Whazzit?

OK, I've got a question that I've been wondering about.  Now, I preface this
by letting everyone know that I have a vcr, but don't have cable.  The last
time I saw S1999 was many years ago, and I'm running on memories and
discussions.

So, with that in mind, what kind of food replication processing does Alpha
have?  Hydroponics, live animals, some sort of a replicator (well, maybe
not).  I am curious.

If they didn't explain it in the series, what COULD they have had?

Let the discussion begin...



Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 21:34:44 -0700
From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com
Subject: Welcome to Chez Alpha. I'll Be Your Farmer, Er, I Mean, WAITER Tonight.

Hi Mark:

The characters talk about Hydroponics Section in a number of episodes, and at
the end of "The Last Sunset" Victor says that the "sacred bread" (moon fungi)
that drove Paul mad will make a great food source for the Alphans as soon as
the hallucinogenic properties are filtered out of it.

Also, in "Return of the Archons," Alan talks to Etrec about (I think)
hamburgers back on Earth and mentions that they'll have to settle for some
sort of substitute.

I assume that if they ever had any frozen meat on Alpha it was long since
consumed after Breakaway with no more shipments from Earth coming in.  And
while it could be considered that the Alphans may have found suitable alien
animal life in their travels, they probably wouldn't have brought it up to
Alpha and started breeding it -- if nothing else than for the fact that their
resources were limited and, as anti-meat people always tell us, the resources
it takes to ranch cattle (for instance) would go a lot farther if they were
just consumed by humans directly in the first place.

Can't recall a single episode where the travel tube doors opened and they
hearded cattle or anything else through the corridors of Alpha, but who
knows?  Come to think of it, that Alpha symbol on the doors to Command Center
would have made a great brand.  Maybe the writers missed a great opportunity
here, as we could have had a "Western" episode like "High Noon" or something.
 Star Trek did it, BADLY (during Freiberger's season -- natch).

Robert



Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 08:18:41 -0700
From: "Ellen Lindow (LIS)" (lindow@luna.cas.usf4tag.edu)
Subject: Introduction

Hi, I thought it would be polite to introduce myself.  Well, actually 
three of us will be looking in, I just happen to be the one at the 
keyboard.  Myself, Michael, my husband, and Cindy, have been 1999 fans 
since the first episode aired here in Tampa, Florida.  We have all the 
laser discs, toys, books, and were pleased to find your website and 
listserv and have enjoyed the posts from the last few days.  We'll post 
our vote on episodes later today.  Hope to hear from you all often.
Ellen, Michael & Cindy


/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Ellen Lindow                   |  "This is the world we live in
Wife, Mother, Graduate Student |   And these are the hands we're given
Webelos Den Leader,            |   Use them and let's start trying
Systems Administrator          |   To make is a place worth living in."
lindow@luna.cas.usf.edu        |      Genesis, Land of Confusion
sfdxb@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.us      |



Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 08:15:14 -0700
From: "Ellen Lindow (LIS)" (lindow@luna.cas.usf4tag.edu)
Subject: Re: Welcome to Chez Alpha. I'll Be Your Farmer, Er, I Mean, WAITER Tonight.

Cows would not be a good idea, but chickens would be.  They are small, 
eat an easy to grow grain, provide a lot of protien in many forms: eggs, 
meat, bones, shells.  And I'm not just proposing this because I used to 
have 50,000 of them in my back yard.  The Alphans did have doves, and 
could breed them for food.  We saw them in The Mark of Archanon.  But if 
I were supplying a Moonbase from Earth, I would have sent chickens.  
They've been bred for production of eggs and meat for many years, and 
nothing is wasted.  Their by-product is even used to grow the grain they 
and we eat.  Even with hydroponics, you have to have nitrates to grow 
food and chicken manure is a great source.



Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 10:55:01 -0700
From: Ronald Dudley (dudleyrd@expert.cc.purdue4tag.edu)

Robert (Sfcafeguy@aol.com) said:

> Also, in "Return of the Archons," Alan talks to Etrec about (I think)
> hamburgers back on Earth and mentions that they'll have to settle for some
> sort of substitute.

Robert has been trying to answer too many emails lately!  "Return of the 
Archons" WAS A STAR TREK EPISODE! The 1999 episode was "The Mark of Archanon."
These shows are all starting to blurr in my mind too.  I used to confuse
Koenig's mention of the Unified Field Theory in "Black Sun" with ST-TNG's
Barclay's all night discussion on Unification Theory with the hologram Einstein.
Until SciFi Channel showed Black Sun last month, I thought Koenig mentioned
"Einstein's Unified Field Theory".  Actually, he never mentioned Einstein.



Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 20:26:00 -0700
From: "Allen R. Barnella" (barnella@cris4tag.com)
Subject: Re: Welcome to Chez Alpha. I'll Be Your Farmer, Er, I Mean, WAITER Tonight.

Robert, et al:

Although they probably wouldn't have transported alien animal life up to 
Alpha for breeding, it is possible that they could have hunted alien 
animal life and transported it back to Alpha for special occassion 
feasts, like Thanksgiving.

Fly Like An Eagle,

Allen
barnella@concentric.net



Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 23:21:28 -0700
From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com

Yikes!

Not as long as my name's Dr. Helena Russell, they won't.  :)  That alien
animal life may look something like a potential Thanksgiving dinner, but
whose to say what kind of alien nasties it might be harboring or what kind of
allergic reactions they might have to it.  They might sit down to dinner with
father figure Koenig saying a few words and before they can eat their meal
it's eating them.  I'm picturing the face hugger from "Alien," and it's
enough to kill their appetites even if the taste of the alien victuals isn't.

Just my medical opinion.  Take it for what it's worth.  (Nothing.)

What do you think Dr. Marcy Kulic, Jeanette, anybody?  Should they eat alien
animal life if not absolutely essential to survival?  I'm genuinely curious.



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 00:21:58 -0700
From: Whyte Wolf(whytwolf@spots4tag.ab.ca)

All,

	just my two cents....

	Well it has been mentioned elsewhere that the Alphans have hydroponic 
farms, and that they do have seed stores.  These days almost anyting can be made 
out of soy byproducts, so why not hamburgers and beef?

	Certainly much safer than picking up an alien platypus as they pass by 
(after all, who says the platypus ain't the sentient life in the system?)


Sean -> could you imagine?  Aliens attack Alpha because Allen made their high 
priest into a steak {BEG}.



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 07:05:47 -0700
From: "Ellen Lindow (LIS)" (lindow@luna.cas.usf4tag.edu)

I agree that Helena would not let them eat anything that had not been 
thoroughly tested and irradiated to remove any harmful bacteria.  I'd 
stick with the doves first.  Dove hunting is a respectible pass-time 
around here, although I've never done any myself.  It tastes like quail, 
sort of in between chicken and rabbit.



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 09:08:55 -0700
From: Patricia Sokol (sokolp@war.wyeth4tag.com)

          WAITER Tonight. -Reply

Greetings Earthlings,

1)  A recent news item in the journal SCIENCE, or a similar
publication, stated that the humble potato is the ideal food for
long-term space flight/habitation.  Apparently it provides good
nutrition, grows well in hydroponics, and is very efficient at both
recycling carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen.  One three-meter row
of potatoes can meet the oxygen needs of one person on a daily basis
(??!!).

3)  Even if Helena did pass something for human consumption, it would
probably taste like chicken anyway ;-)  But, they'd have a lot of
chips to go along with it.

-PTS.



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 12:01:13 -0700
From: jquimby@utmmg.med.uth.tmc4tag.edu (Jeanette Quimby)

Robert asked for a few thoughts, on food....

You're asking the wrong person right now - just say food and this pregnant
women is eating - must be heavily loaded with sugar or junk food though !

Seriously though!

Let's think back to our forefathers - for those of us here in the U.S.A.,
let's remember Thanksgiving - without the sophisticated tests of today, our
founding fathers sat down to a feast of foods never tasted before.  Turkey
(I know there's a form of wild fowl in Europe, corn, some squashes, and
other veggies that were unfamiliar to them.  They survived!

Let's move forward a few hundred years - the lonely Kiwi fruit - who took
the first bite.  Yes, at least a few more tests were run - and the "guinea
pigs" were the natives.  But, with different "racial" groups - some foods
may not be tolerated due to enzymes, etc.  So by relying on the fact that
because the natives are alive - is not a plausible justification that the
food is "good".  Come to find out - in an article in the National Geographic
a few years back - the Kiwi is one of the highest containing fruits with
Vitamin C.

Let's keep going - meat products.  Each culture/ethnic group has different
guidelines.  Some of us would be scared to think of what goes on behind the
kitchen.  How many out there are sushi eaters?  Twenty years ago - you
probably would never have eaten raw fish. How about raw oysters - look at
the dangers involved - living on the Gulf Coast, at least once each summer
there is a bacteria scare with the oysters harvested.  Cows - for those of
you in Europe, I must say with the recent scare of "mad cow" disease - beef
is going to be scarce - so are you going to turn, like your neighbors in
some parts of Asia, to dogs/cats to supplement your meat intake.  Or as some
in Britian are reading - you do have a declining pigeon population at
Trafalger? square.

And please - talk about all the testing that currently goes on with our food
products - "don't eat this, bad for your cholesterol", "make sure pork is
cooked you don't want to get worms", "don't eat this, too high of sugar
content", "don't eat this, it will elevate your blood pressure", "don't eat
this, it will give you cancer".  Well, I draw a line between good taste and
living a happy life, and becoming so restrictive that you can't enjoy a fine
meal at a restaurant.  I say eat and be happy!

So to get on with it.....

With all the testing that they could do (which of course, we will assume is
even more sophisticated than present day), I would lay money, that every now
and then between finding chemicals to sustain life, that a little "hunting
and harvesting" could be done.  Look at the episode "A matter of life and
death" - how quickly the water was "safety inspected", as was the plant life
(I must though they were a bit brave to eat so quickly).  So that passing a
planet in a matter of days, they might still have time to run some quick
tests.  And, if they harvested and ran even more extensive tests on Alpha to
verify quality and safety, if it failed the even more scrutinous tests -
there's the proverbial "File 13" or garbage can.  

How about water - Which they would be real miracle workers to duplicate
water - even with constant recycling and conservation, I would assume that
the supply would at some point slowly dwindle.  Countries currently with
water problems (Middle East - some areas of the U.S.A.) realize that no
matter how much they conserve or recycle, at some point, they will run out -
if it weren't for the role of mother nature/God with rainfall, etc.  With
Alpha being a sealed environment, I think there chances of a "rainfall" are
rather slim - at some point, water would run low.

At some point, they would have to "risk" eating native vegetation and
plants. Look at the weight loss of the Biosphere inhabitants in growing food
in their limited environment.  Man cannot live by vitamin soy food and water
alone.  

I go with the theory - they will eat alien "animals" and plants at some
point due to need.  Some might get sick, die, etc. - but hey, there are a
lot of people out there with "food" allergies to "native" things that they
don't realize until they have an allergic reaction - which can be either
mild or life threatening.  And it's only in the past 30? years that we have
realized the hazard of a disease associated with PKU containing food
intolerance.  We now have a blood test developed for newborns to determine
that they lack an enzyme to process this - we now save lives/prevent mental
retardation by modifying diets and medications.

So, even with humans on Earth - there is always a "risk" with food.  Not
everyone on Earth can eat what their neighbor eats.  There is always a risk
of disease, allergic reaction, (we even add things that may be hazardous to
ourselves - alar in apple juice for babies a few years back), etc, even on
our own planet - which we don't realize until after the reaction sometimes.
I say test it as much as you can, and then slowly sample it, etc.

As I finish off a pack of vanilla cookies with cream, as well as a Coke,
with a frozen Milky Way waiting to be opened, I'll be standing in line
waiting for the fresh veggies to arrive on Alpha - the soy and vitamin
supplements would drive me crazy after a while!

You should never have asked a pregnant woman's thoughts on food!!!!

Jeanette
Houston, TX 



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 17:06:47 -0700
From: Ronald Dudley (dudleyrd@expert.cc.purdue4tag.edu)

Subject: Alphan cuisine again

Patricia Sokol writes:

> 1)  A recent news item in the journal SCIENCE, or a similar
> publication, stated that the humble potato is the ideal food for
> long-term space flight/habitation.

That's funny.  Erich Von Daniken (author of Chariots of the Gods) has
claimed that bananas are the ideal food for space travelers, and that
bananas originated in outer space, because they are so different from
any indigenous earth plants. Of course, he's all screwed up.


Jeanette Quimby :

The instances you list (Pilgrams eating turkey, corn, squash, etc)
were of humans eating foods which had already been eaten by other 
humans and successfully digested.  Try considering the futility of
the alphans trying to live on the diet of another SPECIES.  Tobacco
has many pests, which successfully digest it, but if the alphans
crash landed in a jungle of tobacco plants, they would quickly starve,
simply because they would vomit up any tobacco that they tried to 
swallow.  Termites eat wood, but the alphans certainly could not.
And if the alphans tried to live off of a planet with plants that
were catabolic, like celery, they would eventually die because it
takes more calories to digest it than there is in it to begin with.

There's lots of kinds of possible incompatibilities.  

> How about water

Space is full of water! (Relative to other chemicals that is.) Comets are
rich in water! In the cold, dark vastness between the stars, there's probably
lots of ice.  The distribution of the sizes of ice chips will be such that
tiny pieces are very common, and big chunks (like comets) are more rare.
A moon plowing through the darkness between the stars would probably
pick up a coating of the stuff, along with the other simple, common chemicals
like methane and ammonia.  The moon may already have craters full of ices
at its north and south poles, in deep craters where, PARDON THE EXPERSSION,
THE SUN NEVER SHINES.  Polar craters full of ancient ices that have never
been vaporized by the sun.  NASA has already done theoretical studies of
how to mine this possible resource for fuel and other uses.

> At some point, they would have to "risk" eating native vegetation and
> plants. 	,	,	Man cannot live by vitamin soy food and water
> alone. 

I don't know about that. I know people who eat nothing but junk extruded
in factories.  Some of these people survive on diets totally devoid of
recognizable vegetable matter.  The only cereal matter they eat is highly
processed, like the flour in a twinkie. You could easily switch soy-burger
for hamburger, and their lives would go on.  And at the input side of the
food factory, you could switch soybeans with some even lower lifeform,
like plankton grown in large basins.

> I go with the theory - they will eat alien "animals" and plants at some
> point due to need.

Here's a possible fan fiction story:
What if they got stuck in orbit of a Waterworld planet, on which all
the continents had sunk, and the only life were krill and whales, and
the krill was completely undigestible, so the only option is live on boats
and eat whale-meat, or die.  And the whales can speak english, and tell 
the alphans that they don't want to be eaten.  And the whales are hostile,
like all aliens.  And the whales have lasers. And , , , , , ,

Or maybe the surface of the Waterworld is frozen, and the only food is
cute baby fur seals which are too young to swim away.  And the seal pups
speak english, and tell the alphans that they don't want to be eaten. 
And their seal mothers have psychic powers like in "Lambda Factor" , , , , 


> So, even with humans on Earth - there is always a "risk" with food.  Not
> everyone on Earth can eat what their neighbor eats.

Well then they should eat their neighbors, like the Andean mountain plane crash
surviviors did, like the Darians did.  Eat their livers with fava beans, and
a nice Chiante, just like Dr. Hannibal Lector did.  The alphans may discover
some other solution to their food problems, but they could die before then.
So, it could simply become, eat or die.
 
Why does Hollywood always give the space heroes repulsive aliens to kill or
be killed by, like Star Trek's cone-shaped planet killer, or TNG's Borg, or
Sigourney Weaver's bug-aliens?  Why not give them really excruciating moral
dilemma's like "eat the cute-innocent alien lifeform or starve"?

The closest thing that comes to mind are dilemma's of self sacrifice,
the 1969 (?) movie "Marooned",  in which the astronauts faced having
to decide which one was going to die so that there would be enough oxygen
for the others could live.  Modern people in their comfortable industrialized
cities won't pay money to see stories about the really tough choices
that ancient peoples faced, and that modern third world people face.
 
Alphans trying to adapt to some new world would probably be like something
out of the stone age.  A few hundred humans (even with lasers) would 
face immense problems on some wild wilderness of a planet (especially if
it had cool dinosaurs like in Jurassic Park), and really big problems
on a populated planet, like the "Planet of the Apes". 300 alphans with
lasers and buggies trying to get along with a million apes with rifles and
horses. Hmmmm.  It wouldn't be long before those apes demanded land in
exchange for lasers.  300 alphans with lasers versus a planet full of
hungry dinosaurs? Hmmmm. I bet that dinosaur taste just like chicken.


Ronald

  "It makes 'Star Trek' look like a tacky attic production."
     Tom Shales, The Washington Post, Friday, August 29, 1975.



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 19:17:23 -0700
From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com

.cas.usf.edu) writes:

>I agree that Helena would not let them eat anything that had not been 
>thoroughly tested and irradiated to remove any harmful bacteria.  I'd 
>stick with the doves first.  Dove hunting is a respectible pass-time 
>around here, although I've never done any myself.  It tastes like quail, 
>sort of in between chicken and rabbit.

Doves are the only things I ever shot and enjoyed shooting as a maniacal lad
with a gun during my childhood in boring California farming country.  I shot
a robin once with my BB gun but it was so easy (and stupid) I never shot
anything "just for fun" again -- I felt REALLY bad!

Next came doves and once a rabbit.  Rabbits go CRAZY when shot, even though
they're already dead.  The acrobatics are pretty damned humorous until one
thinks about why they're happening.  Doves, on the other hand, were cool to
hunt because one just sits around the reservoir on warm evenings and lets
them have it when they land or fly by.  Then you "wring their neck" (gross)
and pick their feathers (gross again) and then you cook them (yummy -- though
they tend to be a bit greasy).

See why I'm now a big city sophisticate rather than a country bumpkin?
 Afraid I don't have much of a killer instinct.  Just don't have the heart
for it -- but I suppose I'd learn to adapt pretty quickly on Alpha if the
alternative was soy this and soy that every day.

Robert



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 19:09:19 -0700
From: jflmgcnp@capital44net.com (John J Fleming @ COLD NORTH Publishing)
Subject: The Easter Bunny!! (was: 'Welcome to Chez Alpha....')

Ellen wrote:

>I agree that Helena would not let them eat anything that had not been 
>thoroughly tested and irradiated to remove any harmful bacteria.  I'd 
>stick with the doves first.  Dove hunting is a respectible pass-time 
>around here, although I've never done any myself.  It tastes like quail, 
>sort of in between chicken and rabbit.

     Thats it!! I have always wondered where the Easter Bunny came from.
Think about it, a rabbit that lays eggs?? It's gotta be a Freiberger quail
special!!!



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 22:10:02 -0700
From: Mark Eidemiller (skylab@e-z4tag.net)
Subject: Re: Welcome to Chez Alpha. I'll Be Your Farmer, Er, I Mean,

>How about water - [....]  With
>Alpha being a sealed environment, I think there chances of a "rainfall" are
>rather slim - at some point, water would run low.

That's a good point.  I never considered the water problem.

What about some sort of contained environment where you could artificially
control atmospheric conditions and produce condensation?  I don't know how
feasable it would work, but it might be a way of supplementing the existing
water supply.

Maybe something like those desert suits in "Dune" - recycle your own wastes?

Also, consider the intent in constructing Moonbase Alpha.  What was the
original plan for the water supply?  If the intent was for Alpha to be
totally self-sufficient, there might be a clue there (I rather doubt they'd
have had tanker shuttles delivering a load of fresh water every six months
or so).

>As I finish off a pack of vanilla cookies with cream, as well as a Coke,
>with a frozen Milky Way waiting to be opened, I'll be standing in line
>waiting for the fresh veggies to arrive on Alpha - the soy and vitamin
>supplements would drive me crazy after a while!
>
>You should never have asked a pregnant woman's thoughts on food!!!!

No pickles?



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 22:59:15 -0700
From: Allen Michael Retodo (ndver@well4tag.com)

You know I always got thirsty when I watched :1999.  

Mike 



Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 18:50:52 -0700
From: Petiepry@aol4tag.com
Subject: Dietary needs

As your resident dietician, I most certainly would be concerned with all of
our nutritional needs.  I have to say that meat would not be the answer.  The
best bet would be to keep up with hydroponics and grow vegetables, fruits,
etc.  The biggest problem with our Alphans would most likely be boredom.
 Therefore, growing herbs and spices would be just as important. 



Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 19:27:01 -0700
From: Deborah Capuano (magneto@bcfreenet.seflin44.lib.fl.us)
Subject: re: dietary needs

I can't remember the name of the book , it was one of the first season 
novelizations (NOT one containing stuff from an actuall eo 
episode)..which dealt with just this...where the Alphans had constructed 
what was to be a "ra "farm" of sorts in one of the larger caverns near 
the base...if ano anyone remember the name of this book please let me 
know...it's one of two such novels whose titles I cannot recall...



Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 01:55:53 -0700
From: NicStepro@aol4tag.com
Subject: Food on Alpha

Ronald said:
The Moon was littered with dead aliens that Koenig slaughtered in his
rampage of death.  If they hadn't disolved, might the carcasses of those
dead Bringers of Wonder made good eating?
 (snip)

The alphans probably ate something recycled in a big biochemical plant.
Something sort of like Soylent Green, or Twinkies .

Ronald
#122 Self-Destruct Systems Engineer

Ahem, I couldn't help but to delurk to interject in Charlton Heston mode:
==> "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!! IT'S PEEEEEO - PLE!!! 
In any case your probably not *really* suggesting that Alphans were
cannibals.
Probably just natural waste/recycling - yes, of course, that's what you
mean...
BTW,  What was that body count??? ;) 

Engaging Lurk mode 
Regards,
Nicolette



Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 05:45:30 -0700
From: Ronald Dudley (dudleyrd@expert.cc.purdue4tag.edu)

Subject: Food again.

Nicolette (NicStepro@aol.com) wrote:

> In any case your probably not *really* suggesting that Alphans were
> cannibals.

No, but as Mr. Spock said in "Wolf in the Fold" (Jack the Ripper episode)
	"We all feed on death. Even vegetarians."

I suppose Odo from DS9 is an exception.  He claims to not eat, so he must
be some kind of plant, able to get his energy from photosynthesis?
  
> Probably just natural waste/recycling - yes, of course, that's what you
> mean...

More like the waste is dumped into large biochemical reactors, full of
bacteria or even something higher up the ladder like plankton or even worms.
These grow, and are harvested, and turned into somekind of protein sludge.
Perhaps Cheese Whiz.  Growing crops would be much more complicated, because
they take up more space, and require lots of surface area for lighting.
Water borne lifeforms can live in a tank, the most economical shape being
a sphere.  Aquatic agriculture would so much more productive on a basis
of how you allocate precious space and energy, and an alpha staffed by
island peoples like the Japanese might be comfortable living on sea food
grown in tanks, but white-western-anglo-americans like myself would 
probably demand beef, potatoes, and 'greens' instead, thus necessating
more space consuming gardens.  Some of the lower class americans could
probably live on twinkies and cheese whiz, or even (gasp!) olestra.

> BTW,  What was that body count??? ;) 

Actually zero bodies.  The Bringers of Wonder dissolved.  Dione was blown to
bits.  Koenig blew all his enemies to bits.  The alphan morticians would
never have been able to sort them out and count them. Koenig must have been
a US Marine: "Kill them all. Let God sort them out."

Ronald



Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 06:45:11 -0700
From: Patricia Sokol (sokolp@war.wyeth4tag.com)
Subject:   -Reply

On the schematics provided in the Technical Manual, there is a
hydroponics farm.  And in one of the "original novels", I think there
was a mention of one batch of yeast having gone bad, or some other
similar dialog.  Yeech.  In Epcot Center at Disneyworld, they have a
hydroponics farm set up.  It's quite space-efficient; things grow
much more closely together than in a regular garden.

>Some of the lower class americans could probably live on
>twinkies and cheese whiz, or even (gasp!) olestra.

Hey!!  Twinkies are forever.  Literally.

PTS.