A Vegan Mars Possible After Scientist Grow Martian Tomatoes

Dutch scientists, who made headlines in March for successfully growing vegetables out of simulated-toxic Martian soil, have found that their grown crops are perfectly safe to eat, moving a step forward toward the possibility of plant-based living on the red planet. The radishes, peas, rye, and tomatoes grown in the heavy metal-laden simulated Mars soil were tested and found to contain much lower concentration of those harmful metals than expected, “even lower than in the crops grown in potting soil” for some metals, the team said. The next step is to test test all 10 plants grown—including potatoes, carrots, garden cress, and green beans—to verify the safety of all crops, then to organize a meal for the research sponsors. “They will be the first to eat the ‘Martian’ tomatoes and taste if they have a different flavor from the normal earth tomatoes,” ecologist Wieger Wamelink said.