Growing food in the Antarctic
Last weekend, as the temperatures soared, I found a certain amount of solace in learning more about how plants are being grown in Antarctica – the coldest place on Earth.
I’ve known for years that there were greenhouses in Antartica, supplying isolated crews with a few fresh vegetables, and a splash of colour and humidity in an otherwise white world. The one I was most familiar with – at the American McMurdo Station – opened in 1989 and closed in 2011.
America also has the South Pole Food Growth Chamber (SPFGC), which was assembled and extensively tested at the University of Arizona before being shipped to the South Pole. It was installed in Antarctica in 2004 and is still in use today. It has been used to grow a wide variety of crops including lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, melons and peppers.
I was curious as to how many greenhouses were in active use in Antarctica, and I found out that in 2015 there were nine. As well as the SPFGC, there were greenhouses at Casey, Davis, Mawson (Australia), Great Wall (China), Syowa (Japan), King Sejong, Jang Bogo (South Korea), and Scott Base (New Zealand).
The UK isn’t on that list. The British Antarctic Survey operates three research stations in Antarctica. Rothera Research Station is the largest, and there’s also the Halley VI Research Station and Signy Research station (which is only operated during the summer). The original plans for the Halley VI base included a hydroponic greenhouse, but it was never built. In fact, it appears that the British haven’t been growing any plants in Antarctica since the 1970s.
The first plants deliberately grown in Antarctica sprung up during the Discovery Expedition, officially known as the British National Antarctic Expedition, from 1901–04.
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