What is Spirulina?
Spirulina is a very nutritious superfood microalgae, which is naturally found in some soda lakes in East Africa, e.g. Lake Turkana. It can be cultivated optimally in waters with a water temperature of approximately 37 degrees Celsius at a pH of approximately 9.5 and corresponding salts in the culture medium. Due to its nutrient profile, the possibility of being grown in otherwise unusable water and the high yields, it is renowned as a “superfood”. At the 1974 UN World Food Conference it was described as “probably the best food for the future”. Spirulina is a nutritious superfood not only with its nutritional profile with many vitamins and minerals, high protein content (65g protein/100g) and energy content (300Kcal/100g), as well as the supply of micronutrients. The vitally important vitamin B family, vitamin E, folic acid as well as iron, zinc and selenium are particularly well represented. But also with its culinary versatility.
As an accompaniment to fish and meat and also for ugali, Spirulina makes a valuable contribution to taste and health. Spirulina is also considered an enormously promising food due to its high rates of harvest, low water and resource consumption and its ability to bind CO2 instead of consuming it. As Spirulina grows with cell division, the growth of Spirulina can easily be modelled according to Levasseuer. After about 120 days, one milligram of Spirulina produces about 1 kilogram. This way of growth makes Spirulina one of the most harvest-full plants to grow. Spirulina can feed 1,250 people on one hectare of arable land; by comparison, high-performance wheat can feed just 144 people per year. One kilogram of dry Spirulina consumes just 166 litres of water in production, while 1 kilogram of beef already consumes 15,000 litres of water, 1 kilogram of rice 5,500 litres. 741 kg CO2 are bound per ton of Spirulina.
We grow Spirulina in Nariokotome-Anam!
Because here in Nariokotome the water is salty and alkaline, we can grow Spirulina naturally with high quality. It can grow better than in most other places in the world. It is good food for children, elderly, sick and people concerned about their health. Here in Anam, it also has a unique salty and sweet taste. Try it out now! You can get it from Joseph Ekoyan and Thomas Ekiru.
Daniel Kotter
