Such a good rant. But Cosmonauts and Astronauts have been been eating food grown in space for many years now, and people have been sending seeds into space since 1946. Then there were the 1971 500 moon trees. Lots of info and background at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_in_space.
Plants already grown in space over the last 45 years include:
Arabidopsis (Thale cress)
Onions, peas, radishes, lettuce, wheat, garlic, cucumbers, parsley, and dill
Lettuce and Cinnamon basil
And the zinnia wasn’t the first flower grown in space, either. That would be the tulips, back in 1979, per http://www.airspacemag.com/space/growing-pains-4148507/?no-ist=
Still, Energia’s scientists were so impressed with the psychological effects exo-gardening had on cosmonauts that by the time Salyut 6 was launched in the late 1970s, the Soviets had begun to think of the research in a new way—as a tool to boost crew morale. In 1979, when Valeri Ryumin and Vladimir Lyakhov struggled with loneliness and depression during their unprecedented half a year in space, Energia sent interior decorations—flowering tulips and a mature kalanchoe plant—to the station via a resupply vehicle. Ryumin and Lyakhov were cheered immediately. They named the kalanchoe “life tree” and made sure it was always in the picture during television broadcasts from the station. Later, aboard Salyut 7 in 1982, Valentin Lebedev observed that gardening calmed him. “I water the plants regularly, happily,” he wrote in his diary. “I spoil them; I am too generous with water.”
Yet despite the ancillary emotional benefits, the primary goal of raising crops from seeds in microgravity was not to be easily reached. A long road lay ahead for scientists. They were to be frustrated by plants’ fickleness, hampered by a series of unsuccessful greenhouse designs, and thwarted by unforeseeable factors and events.
Read more: http://www.airspacemag.com/space/growing-pains-4148507/#72PpSXEykpS04IVv.99
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