Biohacking Microalgae for the Future of Food: Ending World Hunger, Fighting Climate Change, and Restoring Nutrition
Awarded by the 2022 Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision National Science Competition
By Tina Mai and Alexis Lindenfelser
Abstract
Every day, 25,000 people die from hunger and malnutrition. Meanwhile, outdated agricultural practices take up 70% of the world’s fresh water supply and plunge us toward the collapse of our global food system. Rapid population growth places us at risk of a Malthusian catastrophe, which means we won’t be able to feed the next generations unless world food production rises 60%. Our solution fights some of the world’s biggest problems with one of the planet’s smallest organisms: microalgae. We plan to cultivate strands such as Spirulina, Chlorella, and red algae to formulate an algae-based paste, which would act as a meal replacement and emergency food rehabilitation product to tackle world hunger and climate change. In the future, such a product could be developed into a nutrition source for space travel, the military, and nutrigenetic services; it could also facilitate economic mobility for farmers in developing countries.
Present Technology
Scientists are constantly racing to engineer the “future of food” by inventing new technologies that increase the food supply to feed the next generation. These days, 3D-printed and lab grown meat, genetically engineered fruits and vegetables that contain more vitamins and minerals, drinks and pills as meal replacements, and bugs as an alternate source of protein are the most widely recognized as the future of food. However, many of these solutions are too expensive to be implemented practically, have unintended consequences, or only serve first-world countries. Microalgaes are being overlooked.
Companies like Triton Algae Innovations, Iwi, and Nonfood, are already taking advantage of the superpowers of algae and cultivation technologies to create their industry-shaking algae-based food products. Triton Algae Innovations harnesses the microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and a heterotrophic fermentation process as it makes non-genetic modifications to produce algae-based heme for their meat and fish products. Iwi, another company in the algae food tech space, uses nannochloropsis algae to create their omega 3 health supplements. Nonfood uses Chlorella algae to make its unconventional high-protein food bars and umami seasoning. Even smoothie giant Jamba Juice has started using blue majik, the blue derivative of spirulina, in some of its menu items.
Similarly, a company called Soylent (yes, its name correlates to the 1973 dystopian film Soylent Green, where food bars — made with a mysterious ingredient — fed the population), made waves in Silicon Valley back in 2015. The company’s meal-replacement drinks, with their long shelf life, high nutritional content, and natural ingredients, gained traction among ultra-busy entrepreneurs looking for a quick source of fuel. The company also hoped to someday expand to use their products to end world hunger, but have so far been unable to lower their production costs enough to be both charitable and survive as a company.
As can be seen, these companies all serve a select niche of first-world health and fitness enthusiasts. We believe that microalgae has much broader applications as a way to end hunger in the developing world and drastically reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Our product is inspired by Ready-To-Use Therapeutic (RUTF) packets that are used in the developing world to help children recover from the brink of starvation. The packets, mainly made by Mana Nutrition and containing a peanut-based paste, are purchased and distributed mainly by UNICEF and other NGOs to countries like the Central African Republic, where over 62,000 children suffer from severe acute malnourishment (SAM). The packets are nutrient, protein, and calorie rich, stay fresh for years, don’t need freshwater, and are easy to transport.
The UN has encouraged the use of Spirulina to treat malnutrition in the developing world by supporting the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM), which has been operational since 2009 and works to distribute bags of Spirulina powder to medical facilities in the developing world. They also fund research projects on Spirulina and educate communities on the lifesaving qualities of microalgaes.
But while the Spirulina powder they distribute can serve as a nutritional aid, it alone does not contain the nine essential amino acids or enough proteins to sustain even a child. This is why our solution below combines these ideas of emergency food packets with Spirulina, along with other strains of algae, for a complete hunger solution.
History
Algae have been around for billions of years, and paved the way for the evolution of all modern organisms, from vascular plants to dinosaurs and mammals. It all started around 1.2 billion years ago, when algae developed the ability to photosynthesize, and pumped the atmosphere with oxygen. In fact, 70% of the oxygen currently in Earth’s atmosphere is produced by algae species.
Algae is an informal term encompassing a wide collection of “photosynthetic, non flowering multi- or unicellular aquatic organisms,” and there is estimated to be anywhere from 40,000 to 1 million species. There are two main categories of algae: macroalgae and microalgae. Macroalgae is multicellular (thus eukaryotic) and includes kelp, seaweed, and other aquatic plants. Microalgae is unicellular microscopic algae, including phytoplankton and cyanobacteria. Macroalgaes are harder to cultivate and do not have as many health benefits as microalgaes.
Cultivation & Harvesting Methods
From the irritating green scum clogging up ponds, fountains and fish tanks to algae’s billion-year history of self-sufficiency, it has been evidenced that algae can grow pretty much anywhere and without human cultivation or attention. Algae can grow in saltwater, freshwater, soda water (alkaline water), and even wastewater. Nonetheless, humans have been cultivating this superfood for thousands of years. Recently, it was discovered that the Aztec people cultivated Spirulina from Lake Texcoco. This cultivation method, which modern farmers would call “open pond cultivation,” is still widely used today.
Open-pond cultivation involves algae being grown in natural or artificial lakes, making it the most cost-efficient method because it utilizes algae’s natural habitat as a growing medium. Open-pond cultivation is also hailed as being low maintenance, requiring little energy and operational inputs, and being easy to scale up. However, the light, temperature, and water variability of open-pond systems negatively impact productivity.
Scientists around the world have also had success cultivating their microalgae with photobioreactors, which allow scientists to conduct closed system biological reactions and completely control the growing environment and conditions to maximize the productivity of microalgae farms. But, this method is expensive and difficult to scale.
Others are pioneering a new method of microalgae cultivation called “heterotrophic fermentation,” that could possibly be more efficient than open-pond and photobioreactors. This farming method is unconventional in that it is done in the dark (and thus there are no issues of light penetration or day night cycle considerations), and involves algae feeding off of carbon-based sugars to convert them into biomass. Chylamodomans Reinhardtii can be grown in this way.
Harvesting the microalgae after growth is one of the most cost-intensive aspects of microalgae cultivation, making up 20–30% of the total production costs. The energy intensive process separates algal biomass from culture media. There are many different techniques for microalgae processing, ranging from harnessing biological processes like flocculation and flotation, to physical processes filtration and centrifugation. Later, ionic liquids are used to extract lipids, proteins, phytochemicals, and bioactive compounds, from algal biomass.
Environmental Impact
Oddly enough, most of the fossil fuels that we derive today come from the deposits of Cretaceous (dinosaur-era) marine algae, yet this algae might also serve as the solution to remedy the environmental destruction and pollution problems that were created by burning fossil fuels, since the process of cultivating algae is beneficial to the environment. For one, outdoor cultivation techniques enable the algae to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Plus, growing algae only requires a fraction of the resources needed to cultivate other crops and livestock, all without causing toxic chemicals to leach into soils and water or causing habitat fragmentation. Finally, cultivating algae is considerably less land and water intensive. Current agricultural practices consume 70% of Earth’s precious freshwater resources, and 38% of Earth’s land area globally.
Future Technology
Our Product
Our vision to spearhead the “Algacultural Revolution” comes from hacking the powers of microalgae to invent a meal replacement with the potential to tackle world hunger and replace the inefficient, environmentally harmful agricultural practices of today. We plan to cultivate Arthrospira platensis, a microalgae cyanobacteria strain commonly known as Spirulina, as well as Chlorella, and select strands of red algae. Our technology formulates a microalgae-based paste that can act as an emergency food rehabilitation product to be distributed by NGOs, nonprofit organizations, and other efforts in the fight against malnutrition and famine. Red algae contains many of the same oils and proteins as peanuts (the main component of RUTF), and its compound carrageenan can create a smooth and spreadable texture. Yet our product is designed to be numerous times more nutritious than RUTF by harnessing the superfood abilities of Spirulina and Chlorella. We plan to isolate the various antioxidant, anticancer, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, and antimicrobial bioactives found in algae to boost the strength of our formula into a viable meal replacement for all. In order to provide enough calories and nutrients (e.g. vitamins, minerals, fatty acids) to meet the needs of daily body function, we plan to engineer our microalgae base with ingredients such as pea protein, cassava root (already a staple food for most African countries and rich in calories, carbohydrates, and vitamin A), chicory root (which contains prebiotic fiber for the gut), allulose (a low calorie carbohydrate that improves flavor without the harmful side effects of sugar), and dried milk powder (which contains the daily calcium requirement and is a great source for additional minerals and vitamins).
We plan to package our product in easily transportable pouches made from recycled and biodegradable materials. Currently, major food manufacturing and grocery retail companies ignore the tremendous environmental impacts caused by packaging such as single-use plastics, exasperating the harmful footprint of agricultural production and consumption; meanwhile, this same commercial packaging is tainted with chemicals dangerous for our health. We hope to break that cycle: by choosing compostable and eco-friendly pouches, we can ensure easy transport and consumption, keep out oxygen and moisture (which will contribute to a longer shelf life), as well as minimize plastic waste and pollution in the communities we reach.
Nutrition
Inherently, algae can provide all of the components needed to sustain life. The microalgae we selected are complete protein sources, meaning they contain all nine of the essential amino acids our body cannot produce (in fact, blue Spirulina is one of the only plant proteins to contain 18 of the 20 amino acids). Our product particularly sources Spirulina, the most digestible protein food, because of its life-saving capabilities for malnourished individuals whose intestines can no longer absorb nutrients effectively. Clinical studies have proven that Spirulina can even rebuild healthy intestinal flora. These properties make it a uniquely powerful food for the rapid recovery of children from malnutrition-related diseases in impoverished areas. Even for an infant’s diet, the protein and B-vitamin complex that can be sourced will drastically improve nutrition.
From an immune system standpoint, Spirulina has been clinically proven to enhance immune cell migration more than any other food in the world — this would be particularly beneficial in disease-prone living conditions, where our food will be able to facilitate a detoxifying process that even anti-inflammatories like NSAIDs and COX-2 cannot complete. Furthermore, Spirulina is the only food source aside from mother’s milk that can provide enough essential fatty acid Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA) to aid the regulation of the entire hormone system. Both Spirulina and Chlorella are able to absorb and efficiently remove toxins, including mercury and fluoride, from human bodies. Even one tablespoon of these microalgaes a day can eliminate iron anemia, the most common mineral deficiency.
Looking Forward
We hope to catalyze a new frontier of sustainable, nutritious food by using our product to open use cases that can feed humanity in innovative ways. In the future, we plan to help farmers in developing countries grow their own algae by offering an accessible kit or setting up a program with open-sourced technology. This will allow farmers to cultivate algae on their own and become self-sustaining, eliminating the need to rely on foreign aid. The possibilities of microalgae can give them the opportunity to source their own food and advance their economy. Open-pond cultivation is our farming method of choice, as it would be the most practical to implement due to low costs and low maintenance. Because these photoautotrophic microorganisms only require inexpensive and widely-available natural resources, the food being produced can be available, accessible, and affordable to all.
As humanity shifts toward an era of personalized nutrition, we also recognize that different people will have different dietary needs and wishes. To accommodate this, we hope to create multiple product lines with diverse formulas, as well as harness nutrigenetic services to offer custom packets that serve a consumer’s specialized needs. Furthermore, microalgae-based meal replacements have the potential of being used in the military; its efficiency and transportability offers a valuable solution for providing essential nutrients in ways far quicker than traditional food. Spirulina algae itself is an excellent dietary source for muscle recovery and repair, which could benefit the health and well-being of soldiers in the field. Meanwhile, microalgae foods could transform nutrition during space travel, particularly as humanity begins to expand beyond the frontiers of the blue planet and send astronauts farther than ever before. NASA has already provided their astronauts with blue Spirulina supplements in the past, acknowledging it for its tidy nutritional density.
Business Frameworks
Breakthroughs
In order for our microalgae food packets to become a full-fledged hunger, health, and environmental solution, both social and scientific breakthroughs are necessary. Especially if we want to use microalgae packets as a meal replacement in the first world to ensure that humans do not exceed earth’s carrying capacity, a cultural shift is necessary wherein people realize that they need to eat in a way that is not just enjoyable for them, but also sustainable for the planet.
On the scientific side of things, we need a way to subdue algae’s natural salty taste in order to make it more palatable. One way to do this would be to consider manipulating human’s other sensory inputs, like smell, sight, and texture, that trick our brains into thinking that food tastes better than it actually does. Additionally, flavorists like Nonfood CEO Sean Raspet are working on creating synthetic flavors that improve the taste of health food like algaes without compromising their nutritional value. These aesthetic changes are especially important if we hope to access first world markets, where food options are plentiful and the rate of starvation is low.
Genetic strides also need to be made in the realm of increasing the shelf-life of microalgae-based products. One aspect of this is making sure that unwanted bacteria cannot develop in the algae. Recently, scientists have been working to genetically engineer algae to reproduce faster so that deadly bacteria cannot establish themselves. Strides have also been made in increasing the nutritional content of algae through genetic modification. The scientists also noted that creating new strains of algae did not harm native populations or impact the ecosystem in any way. And, since nearly all food we eat nowadays have been genetically adjusted in some way (e.g. through artificial selection or genetic engineering), it makes sense that we would enhance the genetics of algae as it becomes a main food source.
Finally, another essential process needs to happen to bring algae to the top of our menus: reducing the capital costs of cultivating algae. Currently, most microalgae cultivation, especially high tech methods involving photobioreactors, is more prohibitively expensive as compared to other farming methods. By the processes of economies of scale, more robust production systems, and government subsidies, costs could be brought down. This is especially important if we are hoping to produce large quantities of microalgae pastes for humanitarian causes.
Design Process
Most of the algae cultivated today is delegated to being used in biofuels, health foods, and even as feed for aquacultures. Right now, massive fields are needed to grow animal feed for raising livestock, in addition to the land, chemicals, water and food needed to raise the animals themselves, which makes livestock farming terribly inefficient, considering that humans could just eat the animal feed (such as grains, corn, etc.) itself. Cultivating algae would take up less land and resources than a traditional feedlot, but it still pushes aside the real inefficiency issue.
We considered biofuels as a potential use for our algae, but found that it is not a very viable solution. For one, biofuels are too expensive to compete with traditional fossil fuels like petroleum, and thus stay trapped in a niche market. Biofuels have a low energy density (and thus low energy efficiency) and some biofuels have even been shown to be corrosive to engines and pipes. Lastly, growing crops for biofuels increases already volatile food prices, which exacerbates malnutrition issues. One company, Solazyme, proved to us that microalgae for food was the way to go when they pivoted from producing algae for biofuels to algae for food, changing their name to TerraVia and citing “current extremely low oil prices, changing sentiment around the benefits of biofuels, and uncertain US government policies as reasons behind the business restructuring.”
Once we decided to focus on microalgae as a source for food, we looked into a few specific species of microalgae commonly used in human food products to determine which would be the most practical to use in our products. Chlorella vulgaris, another microalgae, is widely employed in human feeding because of its high protein content and balanced amino acid composition. It is also a resilient mixotrophic species, being able to feed off of a variety of energy and carbon sources. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, another well-known strain of algae, has become popularized because of its applications to research evolutionary biology, as a source for biofuel, and has recently been found to help individuals suffering from gastrointestinal issues associated with irritable bowel syndrome. Finally, there is Arthrospira platensis, more commonly known as Spirulina, a blue-green algae often used as a food supplement due to its high protein content, antioxidant properties, and positive effects on kidney health and memory.
Lastly, we had to choose a form factor for our algae products. Originally, we were thinking of creating dissolvable algae pellets or tablets, but in the developing countries where our emergency food packets would be deployed, many people do not have access to clean water. As a result, we decided on a semi-viscous liquid-based product, similar to the consistency of a nut butter or baby food. Pastes are easy for young children, the eldery, and ill people to consume.
Consequences
One risk of funding microalgae research to create our superfood paste products is that it might divert funds from currently working solutions like the purchasing and distribution of peanut RUTF packets and other initiatives that help to reduce poverty, hunger, and child mortality in developing countries. However, our algae past could be a long-term solution that would, in the long run, save more lives.
Another consequence is that algae cultivation could increase the incidence of cultural eutrophication. Cultural eutrophication occurs when algae, fueled by NPK runoff from synthetic fertilizers, grows uncontrollably in bodies of water, leading to algal blooms. The blooms on the surface of the water prevent light from reaching organisms at the bottom of the lake, killing other marine life and aquatic plants. Once the fertilizer runs out, the algae fall to the bottom of the lake and decompose. When they decompose, they release carbon dioxide and consume oxygen, putting the water into a state of hypoxia. Fish and marine organisms, who absorb oxygen from the water through their gills, die off. Cultivating algae instead of traditional crops would reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers, which might decrease the risk of cultural eutrophication. However, it is important to consider the risks of algae cultures spilling into natural ecosystems.
In closing, algae spans across all dimensions of life on Earth — past, in it being the common ancestor of all modern life; present, in how we currently consume, cultivate, and use algae; and future, as a potential way to end world hunger and bring the environment back from the brink of destruction.
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