Since off-season cucumbers were grown under "transparent stone" - an early version of the greenhouse - for the Roman Emperor Tiberius, we've been trying to bend Mother Nature to our will.
We've even learned how to grow plants without soil, feeding them directly with mineral nutrients in water, often under artificial light.
Hydroponics - as this is called - has always remained a niche method of food production, but now the latest technologies are giving it a new lease of life. They're even trying it in space.
Could this way of growing plants help feed our rapidly growing - and increasingly urbanising - global population?