The Science Of Sky Food

“…when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon. But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened the door…These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water” (Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, 2001, p73-74, originally published in 1908).

The purpose of fairy tales isn’t to make you wish you lived in a world where apples are golden or where rivers run with wine. It’s to make you remember what it was like the first time you saw an apple or a river.

If I was transported to a world where food came from the sky and I explained to the inhabitants of that world that on Earth food came from the ground, which of us would be more incredulous?

I would say that food coming from the sky must be some kind of magic, but they would say that it’s always been that way. They even have sky farmers who know the right wind patterns to produce certain kinds of food. But no matter how much sky food science they explained to me, it would still seem fascinating.

On the other hand, they would say that food coming from the ground must be some kind of magic, but I would say that’s it’s always been that way, “We have farmers who plant seeds.” They would say, “Seeds? What are seeds?”

I say, “Seeds grow into different crops after you plant them and water them.”

They say, “How do you get the plant into the seed?”

I say, “The plant isn’t exactly in the seed. It’s more like the information to make a plant is in the seed. Kind of like a blueprint for a house.”

They say, “Who reads the blueprint to build the plant?”

I say, “The seed just starts building itself under the right circumstances.”

They say, “Where does all the building materials for the plant come from?”

I say, “The plant uses energy from the sun to turn CO2 into plant material and fruit, and we eat the fruit.”

They say, “What’s CO2?”

I say, “It’s the air I breathe out as a byproduct from digesting my food.”

They say, “So the food you eat comes out of the ground and is made of the air you breathe after you eat that food?”

I say, “Yeah…when you put it that way…I guess it is some kind of magic.”

What do you think?
Joseph