Microalgae is the future of sustainable agriculture!
Maya Blanchard
27 Oct 2022
Major changes need to be made in our food production system if we want to provide adequate nutritional support for our expanding population while also improving environmental sustainability. Scientists believe that microscopic algae might be the key to an agriculturally sustainable future.
Terrestrial agriculture is a huge resource guzzler, and its negative impacts on climate, land use, and biodiversity make closing this gap impossible. Some might suggest turning to aquatic food sources, but wild capture fisheries are already massively overexploited. Scientists and agriculturalists must think big in order to solve this problem; and sometimes the biggest ideas involve the smallest of organisms.
Microalgae: a mean, green nutrition machine
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| Powder made from spirulina, a blue-green algae, has already become a trendy, colorful addition to smoothies, pastas, and baked goods. |
The cultivation of microalgae would provide significant environmental relief. Onshore aquaculture facilities do not require soil, irrigation, or fertilizer. This means that runoff and nutrient pollution, as well as competition for resources with terrestrial farms, would be nonexistent.
Another benefit is the reduction of CO2 emissions, one of the most pressing threats to ocean health. Global warming increases the intensity of marine heat waves, which in turn causes coral bleaching and disease outbreaks among marine species. Microalgae farming would reduce the need for deforestation, increasing primary productivity in forests and potentially lowering atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Additionally, aquaculture facilities do not produce as much CO2 as terrestrial production plants. In fact, microalgae can be used to make environmentally friendly fuel!
Good in theory, tricky in practice
There are some snags in the theoretical microalgae aquaculture solution. While growing, microalgae take up more CO2 than can be replaced, requiring the artificial addition of CO2 gas. Although using atmospheric CO2 for this purpose would be ideal, it is easier and less expensive to obtain it from fossil fuels. Scientists have been experimenting with integrating direct air capture (DAC) technologies into the cultivation facilities. Potentially combining DAC with solar power could make this approach more economically feasible. Unfortunately, we are racing the clock. Due to the quickly approaching 2050 deadline, production would have to start before the technologies are fully perfected, making it risky to invest in this project.
There are certainly hurdles to overcome before microalgae cultivation becomes a reliable mass food production source. That being said, we faced these same setbacks when innovating renewable energy technology. Change requires effort, but the promise of a sustainable future and food for the coming generations is a necessary end goal to work towards.
Citation:
Greene CH, Scott-Buechler CM, Hausner ALP, Johnson ZI, Lei X, Huntley ME. Transforming the future of marine aquaculture: A circular economy approach. Oceanography. 2022
Images:
Aqualgae. “Microalgae as a Food Source.” Aqualgae, 9 Nov. 2015, https://aqualgae.com/en/microalgae_food_source/
“Onshore Algae Farms Could Feed the World Sustainably.” Cornell Chronicle, https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/10/onshore-algae-farms-could-feed-world-sustainably. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
Woah! This is a super cool subject. I think you did a great job of providing a quick overview of the issue society faces because of a combination of overexploitation through agriculture and fishing to compensate for overpopulation and food insecurity. Research about the sustainable harvesting of this aquatic algae should be a priority in the current world ecological engineering. This post has great voice and keeps the reader engaged, I was captivated and would love to learn more.
ReplyDeleteI loved learning about this new food source that can turn around issues of food scarcity and overpopulation. It seems like the perfect solution! Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and you do an amazing job of acknowledging this in your writing. By giving the reader reasons to love microalgae, but roadblocks that must be overcome before we can widely use it makes us invested in your writing but also invested in its current state in the world. I can't wait to see what happens with this new food source in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting. I’ve never thought about alternatives to traditional forms of agriculture in this way. The only thing I wonder about is how microalgae replaces the need for other terrestrial agriculture productions. It sounds to me like microalgae is just an add-in that can increase the nutrients in certain foods. However, it is really cool to think about how microalgae could be an environmentally sustainable source of fuel. Overall I think this is a really fascinating emerging field!
ReplyDeleteThis was amazing!!! This topic is incredibly relevant with the recent rise in sustainable agritech. I like how you kept it current and related to your readers by making them understand the importance of this technology to their daily lives and where they may have already encountered it (i.e through spirulina). I've heard algae could be used as a food source for fish in indoor fisheries / aquaponic facilities. I wonder if feeding fish and other marine animals microalgae can make them more nutritious!
ReplyDeleteComment from Crystal:
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting read! I’ve heard of scientists using microalgae as a solution to other sustainability and climate-related issues, but I didn’t know about this one- it’s very cool! Your blog is very well-written and engaging, and I’d definitely like to learn more about this topic and see where it leads in the future of sustainability.