Chapter 1320: Foraging Wild Greens
Looking at the "grass" in Ji You’s hand, Guan Ning was very skeptical about whether it was edible. It’s not surprising she had such doubts now, because the current environment is nothing like during the times of Ancient Earth. The majority of plants are exposed to strong radiation and are harmful to the body.
In today’s society, there are two types of food supplied for residents: synthetic food and natural food. Synthetic food is created by combining several or various edible materials. A large portion of these materials comes from radiated animals, plants, or minerals, which are continuously filtered and purified to ensure they are harmless to humans before being processed into different foods.
These synthetic ingredients, due to deep harmless processing, become colorless and tasteless, and their nutritional value is lost. Food factories take these raw materials and add necessary nutrients for the human body, then produce the nutrient solutions most widely circulated in the market. The better the added materials, the more nutrients they contain, and the higher the price of the nutrient solution.
Nutrient solutions are the basic food supply, ensuring the minimum nutrition and sustenance intake for interstellar citizens. The processed raw materials can also undergo further processing to create synthetic fruits, synthetic meats, synthetic drinks, and so on...
Since the raw materials for synthetic food are not difficult to obtain, the price of synthetic food is generally not high, making it affordable for most families with modest financial means, thus fully ensuring every family’s basic survival rights.
But!
Synthetic ingredients have a significant drawback: they do not aid in the increase of spiritual power at all.
That is why natural food is so sought after.
However, despite humans covering territories involving eight Star Systems, natural food is extremely scarce. Due to cosmic radiation and various harmful substances in the universe, every inch of land humans set foot on is covered. Even every planet humans live on must have artificial Protective Shields, allowing them to freely move on their resident planets without danger from radiation and other hazards. Only a few planets have been spared, providing the vast majority of natural food sources for humanity.
Of course, relying solely on a few planets to supply natural food for humans across several Star Systems is far from sufficient. Therefore, countless agricultural scientists and researchers have invented and created various improved cultivation methods for growing natural food and breeding natural animals. However, the cost of these technologies is extremely high, which is why the price of natural food remains high.