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Viability of food in Antarctica

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Future in Antarctica - Viability of Permanent Food Supplies and their Implications on Antarctic communities. Part Viii
Lecture delivered by Jim Warnell, Swineburne University of Technology,
Melvourne, VIC, 24 April 2091.


Throughout the 21st Century, Antarctic settlements have seen exponential expansion that is typical of settlements during European colonisation of the western hemisphere. Unlike the rest of the New World, these settlements in this early phase of Antarctic colonisation are extremely uique, mainly because human expansion is strictly curbed by the hostile Antarctic climate, and lack of flora and fauna that have provided for humans everywhere else on the planet. The other major factor is our advanced technology that allows for people to live and work in Antarctica.

Access to the Ice, that's short for Antarctica, is relatively limited for half a year. Winter conditions and ice sheet expansion make travelling to and from the Ice impossible, much like the several months required to sail from Europe to its' colonies worldwide.

Now, in 2091, developments are being rapidly undertaken to make our colonies in the Ice independent from host countries and therefore officially permanent. However, Nature forbids this, and Antarctica's climate is proof of this. You think penguins have it easy? Entire colonies of penguins have risen and died out from time to time, and they have been on the fringes of the Ice for thousands of years. What chance do you think humans really have?

There are multiple schemes being undertaken to establish permanent settlements in Antarctica- self sustaining stations with hydroponics labs and livestock housing that can provide food year round. However, much of the plants and animals have been genetically modified for the climate. You have icewheat, hairy cattle, seaweed farms, seal and fish farms built into the ice shelf. Plants that can utilize snow as a fertilizer, in addition to compost that would freeze when dumped onto the ground in these new Ice farms.

The trouble with all these schemes is that everything is genetically modified, and it takes the common sense of a simple person to understand the grave risks and potential consequences of this growing food industry that aims to provide for Antarctica's first generations in the decades to come.

The first food production scheme- the whale milk scheme was and still is the only viable option. The plan was hatched by Grytvyken Corporation, and involved what activists call 'bloating' of the entire coastal ecosystems in the Southern Ocean, and Ross Sea by farming and increasing numbers of all the species in the most controversial breeding program imaginable. This program involved restoring the entire whale population that was mostly decimated by the time the plan was proposed. Whales themselves were captured and used for breeding before being released. Whales would be milked, and whale milk provided to locals, in addition to seafood produced by vast farms situated beneath the Ross Ice Shelf.

Critics still fear this beefed up ecosystem will have unprecedented ramifications on everything else in the world's oceans, and could potentially collapse if mismanaged. Natural systems are not meant to be managed by humans, and so far Grytvyken has been pushing the limits. Then, in the 2060's, the corporation took on genetic engineering of entire new species of plants and animals, such as wide varieties of grain, from wheat to rice; potatoes, corn, garden fruit, even trees have been "edited" to grow in the Antarctic. These plants use waste products (their own and from compost provided), and use acids to break down the ice.

However, this pipe dream is extremely dangerous, to everyone and everything. Human testing is just one of Grytvyken's crimes committed in the name of their projects' success, in which people were routinely force-fed this "food" in all forms and checked for new pathogens that emerge, or for dangerous nutrients and proteins that are produced by the food or even in the digestion process. Hot-fixes are constantly being applied to this new food industry, and Grytvyken has committed every travesty in the book concerning food production. Grytvyken is Antarctica's equivalent to Monsanto. Fortunately, the company is banned from operating anywhere but Antarctica, but on the Ice, only high class people, such as scientists and governing officials are allowed access to food exported from stations' host countries.

However, Grytvyken is watching its ass, and concentrates as much of its resources and finances on its whale milk industry, which provides nearly 80% of a typical Antarctic resident's diet. Whale meat is a common staple, and favored alternative to milk, in addition to seaweed. Seal meat and penguin meat is a rare delicacy, since both are still protected under environmental protection agreements.

The artificial food industry is still considered to be one giant experiment, that Grytvyken hopes will become a permanent industry in the future. That being said, even the younger generation, having being born on the Ice, is still distrustful of this new food. The simple fact that nothing natural grows on ice, enables young Antarctics to put two and two together and realize that food from the 'Gryt Farms' is not natural and can't possibly be healthy, even though local school curriculum promote genetic modification and all the theories that go along with it. They would rather consume whale products, or even just whale milk than eat  from Grytvyken's growing cornucopia.

"Happy Grytsgiving"

I was in McMurdo during Thanksgiving two years ago. Even though Australia and New Zealand don't typically observe Thanksgiving, it is still upheld by American descendents, even at the former U.S. stations on the Ice. Unlike Thanksgiving upheld by American immigrant communities in Australia, New Zealand, much less South Africa; the holiday in McMurdo bears even more significance than pre-collapse America. This is because companies set up by American refugees in host countries donate large amounts of food to the stations, and people enjoy 'better' food for at least a week. Every year at McMurdo, American-Antarctics put on a huge extravagant turkey dinner, loaded with the stuffing, potatoes, vegetables and all the gravies, sauces, cranberry sauce, and desserts you could imagine. People ate good during thanksgiving.

Onto my visit now, it was far different than ironic than I expected. For over 50 years, everyone, from the top ranking brass to the humble laborers took part in this feast. When I was there, only the governors and top private brass ate the good food. For everyone else, what they received was the "Grytsgiving dinner." I was told by my hosts- tradesmen, school teachers, even the children, that the feast was all their experimental products. Everything looked and tasted alien. First was the salad- blue leaves and grass blades, covered with an ice-berry marinade- think licorice flavored black cranberries; a white ice-wheat porridge, green rice, seaweed pasta, and a roast from their genetic beef. These cows' blood is copper-based; not iron based. The animals were spliced with genes from hermit crabs. The blood is blue- so rare cuts were bluish and had a fishy like texture.

Everyone who said to me they did not trust Gryt food will eat on 'Grytsgiving' because they are so bloody sick of consuming nothing but whale milk all year round. I tried the whale milk, and I gagged and vomited. The stuff is greasy, pungent with the odor of rotting fish, and is lumpy and flows like molasses. One way to identify how long someone's been in Antarctica is to see how they react to whale milk. If you aren't repulsed by the odor and taste of the stuff, nor does it clog and ravage your digestive system like it does for weeks on end, then you are considered local, and socially acceptable among Antarctica's commoners, assuming you've been there long enough to adapt to everything else that goes on in daily life.

So when it comes to Grytsgiving, commoners will welcome the different flavors that the artificial cornucopia has to offer, along with thousands of alien proteins, nutrients and what not.
Also on Grytsgiving, if a turkey can't be provided from up north, then a whale is slaughtered and cooked up, but again, this is reserved for the higher-ups or for out-of-towners.

In 2087, Grytvyken filed dozens of lawsuit against American charity groups who supplied food to Antarctica. The year before, they patented everything Americans shipped to Antarctica, and in the courts in 87, they destroyed even the personal basic livelihoods of charity members, and took over the charity infrastructure, and took control over what comes in. As for charity members themselves, they received long labor sentences in Antarctic prisons.

And so on Thanksgiving, most people can hope for is whale meat. They now recieve nothing that was produced beyond the Antarctic Circle.

I'll bet what most of you are wondering is why not just feed them more whale meat? I'll tell you why: Whale meat is hung like a carrot over the commoners' heads. If they are productive and in good behavior year round; then they are given whale meat products, much like jerky, bacon, bone products or oils. If there is dissent, uprising, disputes, etc, then all they can rely on is milk and seaweed unless they want to barter their milk for Gryt food.

The Human Milk Trade - a Social Enforcer

Back in McMurdo, I heard about a secret trade in human breast milk that goes on in Antarctic colonies. It's relatively limited, and quantities are very low. Mac Town comprises of the commoner 'burbs that surround McMurdo and Scott Base. Women who are willing to lactate and barter their milk for goods or services are entitled to a greater rank of respect and even leadership among the lower-class population.

Think about this: Men and women who are so sick of whale milk or seaweed, and seek to offer a vast array of services to lactating women can arrange a win-win deal. But don't confuse that statement for a pervert with his or her face in their partner's chest. First, women are extremely picky of who they give out their precious resource to. Second, a relationship and a link of trust must be facilitated between the two, and thirdly, human milk usually will be issued in a small container. I can't speak for those who maintain mutually exclusive relationships or who provide for infants within their family units.

The milk trade emerged from Islamic countries' research stations (especially those with Grytvyken as the sole food supplier) in accordance to a controversial Islamic fatwa. According to this fatwa, women were advised to give their milk to men to establish familial connection, and protect themselves from laws that forbade mixing of unrelated genders.

While Islam is not the main religion in most other Antarctic settlements, the breast milk trade emerged as a powerful social tool among lower class and ex-prisoner communities across the Ice.

Giving milk is still considered an establishment of a maternal connection and of superiority and allegiance. In some remote, even destitute isolated communities, this custom is as significant as the institution of marriage itself. Recipients, of both sexes, are required to be loyal friends as well as do what they promised in return, and respect the bond established.
There is no restriction limiting connections to two people only. such restrictions that apply to traditional marriage are considered only to weaken connections, especially within larger settlements.

During my week in Mac Town, a few men and women confessed to me that they must maintain at least fifty 'connections' in town and at numerous settlements and field camps they live and work at in order to attain at least 40% of their diet's worth in human milk. They work to earn as much (even from each other) due to the distrust in the reliability of whale milk supplies at remote outposts.

During my stay in Antarctica, I traveled to a settlement called Lamerica 200 miles east of Mac Town. Named after the Little America research stations that existed a century prior,
Lamerica County is home to over 30,000 people and sits on a small island protruding from the ice shelf. It is a farming and mining town. Here, farmers grow Grytvyken's food and maintain its livestock. Workers also maintain the undersea farms, and hatcheries. They work the mines, extracting diamond from the island- which is a crystal-rich volcanic neck- a geologic anomaly. Even in Lamerica, the top brass have good food shipped out to them from up north. Lamerica residents must rely mostly on seaweed, moss and lichens when distribution of whale-milk to the region is disrupted.

Here, the breast milk trade is hugely prevalent and fuels an entire autonomous barter-economy among the locals. Unlike any other food product available, the breast milk trade offers an important protein exchange and a level of connection between people, ranging from basic business relationships to intimate bonds and marriages. In the barren hostile desert with scarce trustworthy resources, such social arrangements have more significance than even in larger coastal towns.

A study conducted by social researcher Dr. Normal Wates, suggests that human protein distribution is another foundation that bolsters the breast milk trade. Aside from whale milk, any other scarce food not from Grytvyken's supply of genetic modified food, people subconsciously prefer protein from a trusted source. I'm not sure how viable Dr. Wates' report really is, but the man has received strong criticism for his work.

During my stay at Lamerica, I bunked with a family in a small portacom on the outskirts of town, right on the ice shelf. They were good hosts, eager to share what they had with me. The man of the family, Herbert Wiltsford, a descendent originating from Kansas, showed me around the places he worked at. He was a jack of all trades. He did construction, maintenance, water mining, fishing, and tending to the undersea farms. He explained to me a few interesting things about Lamerica.

First was that a female majority in the population is always maintained to keep the numbers of men eager to breed low and unofficially maintain a "high safe protein source" hence, the human milk supply. If too many guys show up on frequent census checks, those guys are sent out of town either on constant field work, or to live in other settlements. He also explained to me that the counterbalance to this policy is the labor supply and demand ratio. Male labor surplus is kept out of town, but if there is a shortage of labor, then more males will be allowed to live there. Usually, it is those boys and men who live and work outside of town who are welcomed back.

These policies, maintained by the governing body of Lamerica, and checked by the Ross Dependency administration; have no concern with the human milk trade.

At the time, Herbert explained to me that there was a bad labor shortage, and a recent pandemic wreaked havoc at one of field camps, decimating the men there, something about a bad prion protein in the water, I'm not sure. Anyways, one of Herbert's daughters, a young adult woman named Clarissa, about eight years younger than me, 'proposed,' to me.
I came home after work and during a supper of whale-cheese and crab salad, Clarissa looked at me and said, "Jim, will you accept my body's milk?" while holding a cup of the freshly extracted liquid out to me. She presented herself in a way a man would propose to his girlfriend, only we sat at the table.

Her gesture caught me off guard because I knew the implication of the 'custom,' which in my personal opinion amounts the Lamerican form of a marriage bond. If I accept and consume her milk, in their eyes, I consign myself and life to her, her family unit, and community, and to living and working as a contributing member of their society. The same would also instate her as something of an odd semi-maternal figure; a family authority to me, like a wife, or mother.

Clarissa's family had expressed to me a few times the need for more people to join their society, after the prion disease outbreak cut their numbers. In addition, she wanted to, and was urged by her friends to propose to me, as it's considered a very good thing to have a man connected to you, and as I was an outsider, I was considered a unique person to have added to their community.

Unfortunately, I did not feel so optimistic to a life on the Ice. I'm from Melbourne. I have family there, I have my job there, and many privileges and freedoms that people do not enjoy on the Ice, such as actual food, warm summers, and everything life in Australia has to offer.

I viewed Lamerica as one giant prison town. No need for barbed-wire electric fences, watch towers, armed guards; the Antarctic deterred any escape, and armed security personnel prevented folks from stowing aboard transport vehicles. There's an airstrip at Lamerica, with flights to McMurdo, Amundsen, Allah'nin Buz, and New Boaz, and it is heavily guarded.

Lamerica was founded as a prison camp back in 2010; to house an inmate labor force. Today's residents are descendents of the original inmate populations brought down here, and they know virtually nothing of what's beyond the shores of the Ice, so they hardly view their town as a prison. I think a very harmful shock would take effect if locals knew of the world beyond. So, they are as optimistic as they get. Simple life, the human milk trade. They have created their own unique culture nonetheless. Oh, and loyalty to the town's council and corporations are strong.

I could not live like that. I would have gotten hugely depressed from the lack of stimulation i am used to. So, regrettably, I had to decline Clarissa's offer, and waste the time she spent extracting that cup of milk. She took it pretty hard, and broke into tears. Her mother, sister, and brother were angry with me. Her mother, Clara, said to me, "How dare you, selfish man! You come into our town, see how we live and struggle...surely you came here because there is no better place? We had hoped you could join our family!" and her tirade went on for about ten minutes before she, too, broke into tears.

I tried to fabricate a convincing story that I had a potential wife waiting at home, and that I had committed to her already. In truth, I did, but the difference in our career prospects wedged us apart. Clara counters, saying that my being in town and the distance voids my argument and relationship, and she goes on to cite every reason she can think of and demands that I re-consider. She says "you would be a great asset to our family and friends"
Apparently a man is a sign of wealth in Lamerica, much different than places where women's presence is considered the same. A guy can work, teach, help produce and raise kids, and contribute to the future, all that in exchange for a few ounces of breast milk... In a remote former prison camp in the middle of nowhere...that is not a convincing deal, is it?

Herbert stuck up for me and did his best to calm his wife and daughter down, saying that God had purposes for me elsewhere. The next two days weren't exactly smooth for me. Word gets around fast in a small town, and people, men and women, came up to me, gave me their two cents of disappointment, anger; suggested I re-consider Clarissa; then other women of all ages, even minors on Australian standards, came up to me asking, even begging I take their breast milk, they had loaded thermoses with them and everything, and they began stalking me, and hounding me to the point I found their repeated requests overwhelming.

A fact about Lamerica is this: the county administrator- a local law maker; imposed a rule that if a visitor drinks breast milk from a Lamerica Local; that individual is a local, and forfeits any right to leave, and must be welcomed into their society. So with Herbert as a witness I went to security, and told them what was going on, and they weren't exactly thrilled with the situation and the county administrators themselves are telling me that I should appease the crowd and do a one-year commitment with Clarissa's family.

I had to argue my way out of that one, and thankfully I was ushered to the next flight out.
I was actually glad to be out of there, but it's hard not to feel the stress people go through during hard times.

My own story of Lamerica is an example of just how significant the breast milk trade is in Antarctic regions where food is heavily controlled. In other towns in Lamerica County, laws of such are upheld concerning human milk. For example, one cannot accept milk from more than 5 family units, and one must accept milk from at least 2 family units. This ensures a good bond with the community and enforces that individual's obligations to the community.

In remote and tough situations, the threat of death as punishment is a strong deterrent, mind you.

If Grytvyken collapsed, and more natural food was brought into Antarctica, the human milk trade would lose all significance, and eventually die out.

In larger settlements, such as McMurdo, the breast milk trade is hardly a vital component of the food supply. While excess amounts of food from up north are unloaded from ships and planes and await shipment to other research stations and settlements, thieves have mastered the art of pilfering large quantities of "North food" and have developed their own hierarchy among the rest of the population not legally entitled to northern food. This social system and economy utilizes northern food as a currency to be used and bartered for. During the winter, northern food is scarce, and the 'breadwinners' positions of superiority don't apply. During the summer, it's a different story.
Story on how humans would cope in future Antarctic colonies if the food supply was controlled by a huge corporation; and real food was reserved for top officials only. No offence if this seems a bit perverted but i have seen and much creepier things on the internet, even at DA. if anyone takes offence, please just relax, take this with a grain of salt, and move on. Otherwise enjoy :P
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