[The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project at Agoramania. Photo: Erik Sjödin.]

On Saturday September 30 at 14:00 artist and researcher Erik Sjödin will be cooking Azolla rice crackers in the Agoramania exhibition in Paris. There will also be a video message from philosopher Ségolène Guinard who will be commenting on Azolla in the context of multispecies communities in space exploration.

Azolla is not eaten today but because of it’s fast growth rate and nutritional content it has been suggested as a potential food stuff for settlements on Mars. Azolla does however have a long history of being used as a biofertilizer in rice paddies in Asia. By cooking and tasting Azolla rice crackers we will explore if Azolla has potential to be used as a nutritional additive in rice based food such as rice crackers, rice bread, and rice noodles. Aside from nutrition and taste, if this is a good idea is assuming that Azolla does not contain any toxic substances, which might be the case but needs to be further researched.