The Plight of the Martian Farmer

Biosphere 2 one of their main problems is that growing food was labor intensive, as I've found with my own hydroponics experiments.

Shame about the paywall.

> Stowaway Australian cockroaches covered the floors at night and destroyed everything they could get their mandibles on, including much of the salad crop and both of the kitchen’s microwave ovens (they ate the wiring). The broad mite, a pest that normally afflicts tea plants, broadened its horizons in this special setting and killed the entire potato crop. In the Ocean, the biospherians engaged in a battle of wits with stowaway octopi who had been accidentally introduced into the habitat and whose voracity was only eclipsed by their cunning. After the first few weeks they were never seen, but their depredations continued.

Sounds like they should have added insect farming to supplement their food supply. Most cockroaches are edible when cooked. Yeast or maybe some engineered creatures to produce whatever is needed might be interesting for a modern attempt.

Warning: paywallus interruptus.

Kicks in just after it starts to get interesting.