image from collectspace.com

Not only has the Canadian dollar overtaken the US dollar in value. Canada's space snacks are a better value too. Developed by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the Canadian Space Agency, these snacks rival NASA's in taste and texture. We don't want Canadian astronauts bullied into handing over their delicious snacks by fellow US Astronauts. In the interest of preventing inter-galactic lunchroom fistfights, Congress better start reallocating funds so the NASA kitchen gets the money it needs to prepare some tastier snacks.

The problem with NASA's freeze-dried snacks is that if you're eating sliced strawberries or Neopolitan ice cream bars, they all taste like oversweetened sofa foam. That's why the Canadian Space Agency just unveiled their own contribution to the space munchies race: the "Canasnack." A cream-filled sandwich cookie, it's made with all-Canadian ingredients like maple sugar, cranberries, blueberries, canola oil and oatmeal. The cookies are bite-sized, which offsets the risk of any potential crumbs floating around in the gravity-free cabin and jamming circuitry boards.

Another new Canadian snack being eaten on NASA's shuttle mission STS-118 is caribou jerky. According to astronaut Dave Williams, speaking to media via satellite uplink, dried strips of salty reindeer meat are the perfect way to get pumped for a spacewalk. Onward, Blitzen!