This is Scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm Emily Schweng.

What comes to mind when you think of Alaska?

Probably snow and ice and extreme cold. But what about tomatoes? In fact agriculture is

booming in the 49th state because in the last seven years nearly 700 giant greenhouses have popped up there, thanks to a program funded

by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service.

One greenhouse just outside Homer, an area better known for its halibit fishing,

includes a tunnel packed with plants that produce fruits and vegetables that you'd expect to find on a dinner table closer to Mexico.

Look at all those tomatoes back.

This is like the salsa tunnel.

It is. It is.

Come walk inside for a minute.

Okay.

Farmer Donna Ray Faulkner.

She guides me through rows of wall to wall and floor to ceiling greenery.

Yeah, this is the nightshades.

So all things nightshade eggplants and peppers and tomatoes and tomatilios.

And that's her husband Don McNamara.

With help from the sun, the inside of the tunnel becomes a region with what's called a good

hardiness zone. A standard the USDA uses to

uses to describe places where certain plants grow best,

meaning that Alaskan farmers can grow everything from corn to melons.

Such tunnels are reliably warm. can grow everything from corn to melons.

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