I.S.P. Informations about SPIRULINA - (Rev.:18 october 2002)

1overview.htm

CFPPA-HYERES
PRESENT
- Spirulina-TRAINING-Programs -
de"spirulina WORLD program"
SPIRULINA for reducing MALNUTRITION
AS FOOD FOR EMERGENCY, FOOD SHORTAGES, HUMANITARIAN URGENCIES

A Document proposed by Docteur Ripley D.Fox fox former Directeur General of the "Intergovernmental Spirulina Program"
& the "CFPPA-HYERES Spirulina Training Program":
CFPPA , 32 chemin St Lazare 83400 Hyéres - France

INFORMATIONS paper about SPIRULINA
and its capacity to reduce
MALNUTRITION
IN FOOD EMERGENCIES

ON THE WEB: http://malnutritionzero.online.fr

There are many reasons, but there is no good reason, why children must suffer from malnutrition.
We have seen this kind of picture so often that it hardly attracts our attention.
Yet, 33,000 children 0 to 5 years old die each day because of malnutrition.
That's over 12 million a year! Photo: marasmic disease
before use of spirulina

Kwashiorkor, in the Ga dialect of Ghana means
"the disease the first child gets when the second is on the way" and is largely due to deficiency in proteins, vitamins, and trace elements.

All these can be provided in a spoonful of Spirulina each day. Malnutrition usually involves also a lack of calories which are obtained through energy foods such as cereals, fats, and oils.

SPIRULINA, or its prototype ancestor, has been around for over 3 billion years .

We used to call it "blue-green algae" but more correctly it is a Cyanoprokaryote - a billion years more primitive than algae or green plants.
And it is the difference between Spirulina and our ordinary foods that makes it so interesting.

It contains all the essential proteins, vitamins, non-saturated fatty acids, and minerals AND IT CAN BE USED AS EMERGENCY FOOD FOR REFUGEES, MALNOURISHED AND UNPROTECTED CHILDREN.

SPIRULINA is microscopic in size and grows in highly alkaline salty waters where our disease-producing microbes can't grow.	The string of cells in a filament of Spirulina has no cellulose in the cell walls so we can digest it easily
	More than a thousand years ago the Olmecs, ancestors of the Aztecs of Mexico, were harvesting Spirulina from alkaline lakes,drying it in the sun, and eating it Today the Kanembous of Chad will tell you that they have eaten it throughout their history. With cereals added, it is a complete food - and that is the way the Aztecs and the Kanembous prepared!

10 grams of Spirulina satisfies the B12 vitamin needs of children up to 8 years old.

Spirulina is also effective against anemia because of its great amount of available iron.

Water uses

And Spirulina kills Candida albicans, the fungus which often invades the intestinal tract of AIDS victims; especially those receiving immunosuppressive drugs or antibacterial therapy,

2 grams of Spirulina a day provides enough beta-carotene to protect against xerophthalmia
- the cause for blindness in about 250,000 persons yearly-.

Comparative Proteins Yields

The immune system is strengthened by the abundance of non-saturated fatty acids in Spirulina and the antibiotic qualities of the polysaccharides it produces.

Between 55 and 70% of Spirulina is protein of excellent quality.
Bar graph :
Comparison of essential amino acids

Its amino-acid profile comparing very favorably with the FAO standard protein and with egg protein.

Spirulina can help you make it the best!

How do you grow Spirulina?
It grows naturally in many countries, in otherwise unproductive alkaline lakes.
These can be exploited as in Chad.

But quality and production can be increased by growing it in special basins near the source of alkaline water.

This past year about 3000 tons of Spirulina were grown on industrial farms
and sold through health food stores worldwide.

The need is far greater than the 3000 tons of Spirulina produced in these farms.
The need is for more than 150,000 tons per year.

One ton a day being enough to serve 100,000 children.

The size and complexity of a Spirulina farm depends on the quantity needed, the number of emergency victims to aid , the natural resources available, the climate, the economic infrastructure (transport, power, water),etc..

Diagram with weighing scale
inoculum, sun, nutriment, scale

SPIRULINA needs alkalinity ( sodium carbonate and high PH )
It needs water temperatures between 25 and 40 ° Celsius with the optimum at 35°C
It needs sunlight

The water must be stirred .

- the greater the stirring is the more sunlight it can stand, which produces greater quantities of algae through photosynthesis.
It needs phosphorus, fixed nitrogen and iron along with other minerals, which can be obtained by adding ocean salts.
Phosphorous and iron are added in small amounts but, considering the high protein content (about 12% of the dry weight of Spirulina is nitrogen); the usual way to add nitrogen is to give inexpensive agricultural grade urea.

As 47% of Spirulina's dry weight is carbon one needs continually to add a carbon source to the culture.
Under favorable climatic conditions spirulina can double its volume and weight every 24 hours.
We are talking about ten times the amount of protein production possible with ordinary agriculture.
A culture relying only on atmospheric carbon dioxide for its carbon will produce only about 4 grams of Spirulina per square meter of surface per day.
A culture being fed with carbon dioxide and having a proper mixing can produce 40 grams of Spirulina. Today, industrial production of Spirulina yields about 10 to12 gram per square meter per day
Carbon dioxide is available commercially.
It can be obtained from food process fermentations, or the digestion of agricultural wastes, as well as by the acidification of carbonates.
Local availability will point the best source.

One can have family farms of 10 to 50 m², artisanal village farms up to about 300 m², commercial farms, up to about one hectare, or industrial farms producing from 100 kg to 5 or more tons per day.

In 2001 there are about:
- 32 family size farms,
- 58 artisanal farms,
- 43 commercial farms,
- and 17 industrial farms
producing Spirulina.

Family or village size Family size production of SPIRULINA

Artisanale size
photo: TEHNAP/CREDESA

Comercial farm
CHINA Photo: R.Fox

Industrial farm
photo: R.Henrikson (Earthrise Farm)

The Global Market is bringing riches to some, but it is cruel to others.
It is estimated that somewhere around 750,000,000 people have died because of malnutrition since World War II.
Malnutrition and malnutrition-induced diseases still kill millions of people in spite of the many food aid programs, which, often underfinanced or missing vital elements, stumble along year after year.
The world community simply has not focused on and gone to work to provide the nutrition necessary for ''the other people's children''in famine and food shortages.

For this purpose we have created, through international agreement, the Intergovernmental Spirulina Program, to which a number of countries have signed.already TO ORIGINATE A NETWORK OF HUMANITARIAN CEREALS DOSES FOR FACING HUMANITARIAN FOODURGENCIES

CFPPA-HYERES propose that the governments, ONG, or Prinate persons to benefit of the Spirulina Training programs organized in HYERES (France) or in local area. The Health evolution data , productivity and distribution techniques will be shared among all the countries adhering to this program employing Spirulina to provide the supplemental nutrients for their children.in EMERGENCY

More information on: SPIRULINA
URL:http://.spirulina.online.fr (in french: La spiruline expliqué de façon simple)
URL:http://malnutitionzero.online.fr (in english)

CFPPA-HYERES - Spirulina-TRAINING-Program -
- email: spirulinaP@aol.com -

- Introduction ] CD-ROM Spirulina for Reducing Malnutrition [ - Historic of the World ]
[ - SPIRULINA Composition ] [ - Texcoco Lake Story ]
[ - WHERE SPIRULINA is found ] [ - Basins ] [ - Photosynthesis ]
[ - SPIRULINA Production ] [ - Laboratory ] [ - Harvestings ]
[ - Mix-drying SPIRULINA ] [ - Starting ] [ Problems and Solutions ]
[ - - Why should we grow SPIRULINA ? : for nutrition and health ]
- Public Information-paper on SPIRULINA [ useful links ]

MALNUTRITION-ZERO Using SPIRULINA NUTRIENTS ]