if this is all going to happen. if maybe we could cultivate livestock and plants there?

Should be no reason why not - in fact, it's almost essential.

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Further projects and technology development that allows for sustainable food production in space is a very important for a space nation. Many of my favorite dishes include meat, BUT I do not think we should keep LIVE animals in large numbers in outer space.

It would be prohibitively expensive in resources like feed, oxygen, space, water, to do this. We could do more with less to explore other sources of protein. Just 1 cow can drink 30 gallons of water a day!

As human beings we need to reevaluate our relationship with other living things. We have depleted the oceans and are killing of species at unsustainable rate. Prioritizing human life is one thing, but we must also begin to view animals as our little brothers and sisters who are valuable because all life is beautiful and valuable. If our species is going to have a future in space or on earth we need to change our relationship to other living things. If we can't treat animals respectfully, we certainly are not ready for any discovery of alien life.

Raising "meat" in a space factory is a step in the wrong direction. Possible farming or ranching on some sort of colony would be another idea, but is not agardia's current mission. There are more valuable possible future industries such as the much discussed asteroid/comet mines. It's may very well be more practical and economical to trade for animal products like dairy, eggs, meat for a nation that really was ENTIRELY in space.

That cow might drink 30 gallons in a day, but it's in a hermetically sealed environment. That water is still there. It can be recycled.

Farming was the way I was personally thinking. If anyone is truely entertaining the concept of mass residence then the supply chains will ideally need to be in place first - lifting a few tonnes of food from the surface every six hours is going to get expensive, quickly, once we can attribute the megatonnes of material required for safe habitation then doing similar for farms first should present no particular hardship. There's enough sunlight that falls between the Earth and the moon and misses both to provide for not just traditional but additionally energy farms. There's a lot of physical space in this location. The "excess" produce from before we have any actual requirement can be sold to Earth as by the time we'd be able to construct farms in orbital locations food will be a valuable commodity, extremely so, and energy is always in demand. Once agricultural endeavours expand sufficiently, it can additionally support livestocks and form distributed ecosystems.

I have been doing a lot of math on livestock in space. The amount of protein/pound for most livestock animals is ridiculously expensive compared to other, non-standard sources. The amount of methane, CO2, and waste these animals put out simply doesn't justify their existence in space. Also, how would you keep a cow calm for the flight up to the space station? Flying cows panic!

For the record, this is coming from someone who loves a good steak.

The initial transport might be an issue - but they'll only get that trauma once. and it's easier to move smaller ones. Sedated.

With regards ot the "waste" - this is all recyclable. Organic things tend to be. Anything unrequired or unsuitable for that facility is likely to be of use to another. It's not about protien:cost - it's the flavours etc. You want it you have to make it happen, IMHO it can be made to happen and the benefits - real food - far outweighs potential costs, which in a post scarcity environment would be best described as "absented" as it's reasonably consequnceless in the measurements.

I think live animals in an enclosed environment like a space station is a bad idea. Just think of all the diseases. Maybe mycoprotein meat is an idea to explore.

Cultivating plants would definitely be the first step of living in a colony but raising animals in a space station may take up an unnecessary amount of room. It's best to start off by only growing fruits and vegetables along with algae and plants that give off enough O2. It would be best to import meats and protein based items until enough room is made so that livestock could be present.

In principle, with the development of technology self-replicating mechanical systems you can build anything-even an animal farm on the moon even though the gardens under domes on Mars.Since the microrobots multiply exponentially-from their creation to result high months and after the days even if we want to make a Paradise such as Mars or the moons of Jupiter(not talking about Venus to cool down will be long...)But if it is to be-that is the question.It is now we are not biologically different from animals and cannot exist in space.But if you start to change yourself and the world-will be much more interesting.