You decide to farm in Antarctica...

[Zhongtiao1]

In the far future when the world has warmed up a couple of degrees, One day for some reason, you get a bone-headed idea that you will be the first one to successfully colonize Antarctica. First you go to the head of your country to ask for permission, and they say yes for some reason.

A year after, you get on a boat with your spouse and your six children to Antarctica. A house is built for you that has heating from natural gas, so you do not have to worry about freezing to death. You also will get a bi-monthly food and medicine package. However, you do have to farm your own food source to stay alive. What would you choose and why?

Note: You can bring one animal and a maximum of two crops




My choices:

1. Goat -- Hardy animals that can survive in relatively lower temps. Would still have to be inside a heated barn at night.

2. Carrots -- Cold weather vegetable can be used to make a multitude of foods

3. Broccoli -- Cold weather vegetable, Extremely high in nutrients.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I might go with goat, onions and potatoes. I feel like potatoes are far more versatile than broccoli, and I just love onions.
The goat could be used for milk, cheese etc. Gotta have cheese. And I'd be able to make french fries.
And if the bi-monthly package contained grains, I could make pizza (no tomato sauce though)

 

[Jayro]

Goat, potatoes, and broccoli for me.

 

[Futurdreamz]

I'd have to research the different plants better, but I'd say a combination of hardy and fast growing food. The summers are bright so things would grow like crazy, but it would be good to have stuff that grows in the twilight seasons. I'd need to do crop rotations because I can't rely on fertilizer indefinitely, and I would need to ensure I grow hay or something that can keep my livestock fed through the winters. if I'm limited to two crops and an animal I have to stick with a three-crop system.

Either goat or cow, but a breed that is suitable for cold temperatures.
rye, wheat, oats, or barley as the first crop, whatever handles the temperatures better
some sort of legumes for the second crop, again whatever is best for the weather.

if I get to choose what is in my bi-monthly food package I will occasionally choose plants that are still viable for planting when transported, like potatoes.

 

[x65943]

I choose chicken and corn.

That's the easy part.

Now the hard part is that the continent is mainly rock. You would have to terraform it before it would be useful.

Warming would naturally produce soil via ecologic succession - but to speed things up I would drill into the rock at regular intervals to allow moss and ferns to grow. After hardier plants grow a few years, I would grow legumes to add NH3 to the soil.

Then once I have soil - I would irrigate the land. Eventually I would feed the chickens the corn and primarily sell meat.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I don't know how much of Antarctica would still exist above water if temperatures rose by a few degrees; remember that as ice melts the water rises