Editing Agro Ship

{{Ship Data
|italic=y
| image= AgroShips.jpg
| title= Agro Ship
| race= Colonial
| type= Civilian
| role= Agricultural ship for growing foodstuffs
| status= Almost all destroyed by Cylons {{OS|The Magnificent Warriors}}
}}
[[File:Agro crop.jpg|thumb|right|A bountiful crop aboard the Agro Ship {{OS|War of the Gods, Part I}}.]]
'''Agro Ship''' is the common classification for spacecraft capable of growing any edible [[agro]] foodstuffs needed in a convoy or {{TOS|The Fleet|Fleet}} for long periods of time. These crafts have translucent hull plates interconnected in a structural enforcement grid, which allow the plants to receive the necessary sunlight from a nearby star or some other stellar formation to achieve the state of [[Wikipedia:photosynthesis|photosynthesis]]. Artificial lighting is, apparently, also an important function of these agro ships. One of the crops grown aboard the agro ships is the [[tallon plant]].

Agro ships are unarmed, but can withstand an assault for some period of time.

''Galactica'''s Fleet has three such agro ships; two of which are destroyed by the {{TOS|Cylons}} and the third, the [[Agro Ship 9]], experiences a hull breach via a destroyed airlock {{OS|The Magnificent Warriors}}.

Count [[Iblis]] also visits the Agro Ship 9 with Lieutenant [[Sheba]] during his time with the Fleet ([[War of the Gods, Part I]] & [[War of the Gods, Part II|II]]).

== Notes ==

=== ''Silent Running'' ===
* The agro ships are reuses of the spacecraft from [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/ ''Silent Running''], a Universal/MCA movie that special effects guru [[John Dykstra]] worked on a few years prior to [[Battlestar Galactica (TOS)|''Battlestar Galactica'']].
* An interior shot of a ''Valley Forge'' bio-dome shows up just before the destruction of the agro ship. In the original cut of the episode, [[W:Bruce Durn|Bruce Durn]] as Freeman Lowell (and the planet [[W:Saturn (planet)|Saturn]]) make their fleeting cameos due to the re-use of footage from ''Silent Running''. Durn enters to the left of the frame briefly before the scene transitions to the ship's destruction by the Cylons.  For the widescreen edit, Dern's fleeting cameo is cropped out.   <gallery mode="slideshow">
File:TOS - The Magnificent Warriors - Bruce Dern Cameo.jpg|Cameo of [[W:Bruce Dern|Bruce Dern]] as Freeman Lowell from ''[[Silent Running]]'', as seen in the "full screen" blu-ray release {{OS|The Magnificent Warriors}}.
File:TOS - The Magnificent Warriors - Cropped Interior featuring Saturn.jpg|Crop of footage from ''[[Silent Running]]'' featuring the planet [[W:Saturn (planet)|Saturn]] for the blu-ray "widescreen" formatted release, excluding [[W:Bruce Dern|Bruce Dern]] {{OS|The Magnificent Warriors}}.
</gallery>

=== Addenda ===
* The same shots of the agro ships destruction in "[[The Magnificent Warriors]]" were reused in the ''[[Galactica 1980]]'' episode "[[Space Croppers]]." This continued ''Battlestar'''s tradition of reliance on and reuse of stock footage, a necessity due to the length of time special effects shots took to prepare for and produce in that television era, in combination with the hectic shooting schedule. As a side effect of this, a continuity error is created as, by the time the Fleet heads to [[Earth (1980)|Earth]], they should have only one agro ship left. 

* The [[Botanical Cruiser]] in the [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|Re-imagined Series]] is an homage to this ship.

* ''According to ''[[Encyclopedia Galactica]]'', a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979:''
: Agro ships were created by [[Aeries]] and are capable of converting "artificial sunlight into raw foodstuffs at an average efficiency of eighty-four percent". Converting the food to "add variety and taste appeal" reduces the overall efficiency of food, such as [[hydronic mushies]] to sixty-two percent. Agro ships are capable of recycling and reprocessing nutrients and water. 

: To create the artificial sunlight, the ship gets its energy from the "reburning of [[solium]] wastes from the main drive engines of [ships in] the {{TOS|The Fleet|fleet}}". In addition, agro ships are equipped with foodstuffs that have been created to process the "solium light spectrum" efficiently and grow in the weightlessness of space.<ref>{{cite_book|last=Kraus|first=Bruce|authorlink=|authorlinkurl=|coauthors=|year=1979|title=[[Encyclopedia Galactica]]|publisher=|location=|id=|pages=11-12}}</ref>

* Because of the Cylon pursuit it is obvious that agro ships cannot rely on star light as energy source for constant crop growth: It is unlikely that the ragtag fleet can stop for a longer period of time near a star.

== Questions ==

* Why do the agro ships exist? Of course they are necessary for the fleet. But why do they exist? Why were they built before the destruction of the colonies? To travel with the agro ships have to be space '''ships'''. It makes sense to build agro space stations to grow crops near hostile planets and asteroids that are of strategical or economical value (e.g. as source of resources). But why build agro '''ships''' that can travel through space on their own? (The picture of the agro ships shows  some kind of solar panel where one would expect the propulsion system.) Were they supposed to be a kind of garden cruise ship?

* Are the genetics of the plants grown in the agro ships altered? There are three reasons that make that likely: a) If you can build ships that can travel between the stars then you probably also have advanced knowledge about genetics and the capability to alter plants genetically. b) Agro ships are an unnatural living place for plants: They wander between the stars and as they wander the radiation and light from stars change. The evolution on a planet cannot have been the best preparation for this kind of existence.  c) Agro ships are a more controlled environment for plants then planets: For instance we can assume that there are no vermin. A plant on a planet has to deal with vermin and other challenges of nature. Plants on agro ships do not need that capability (actually modern sorts of corn on Earth suffer from the same problem: the plants were grown on a controlled environment in plant nurseries; those who grew best were chosen as new sorts. It took some time to realize that the new sorts are less capable to deal with vermin, drought and other awkwardnesses of nature).

== References ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Colonial]]
[[Category:Colonial Craft]]
[[Category:Colonial Craft (TOS)]]
[[Category:Ships]]
[[Category:Ships (TOS)]]
{{indicator|TOS}}[[Category:TOS]]

[[de:Agroschiff]]