But there isn’t much practical effect as far as feeding them to animals at farm level.
Algae or seaweeds made a spectacular appearance with great promises a few years ago, only to suddenly disappear. The lure from the human cosmetics and human supplements industries must have been impossible to ignore due to unbelievable margins and opportunities. Thus, I gave up on algae, but I was wrong.
As it appears, efforts continue to find ways to commercialize this important, versatile and much promising resource, which exists in abundance in our oceans and can grow rapidly and efficiently under controlled conditions. I see publicly funded projects here and there (mostly in the EU) looking at different aspects of algae as a feed, fodder or supplement for animals. I am skeptical, even cynical, whether these are genuine efforts or just another way to keep universities going. I want to believe it is the first.
We now need the private sector to undertake this project and start churning out products suitable for practical animal feeding. I am afraid this will not happen soon enough unless (another) calamity befalls us, or something is removed, prohibited or banned by legislation. Or, some politicians find a way to insert algae feeding to animals in the agendas for global climate change, or some other politically important issue.
Algae are wonderful products and a great opportunity, but something is not happening and I do not know what that may be. If we can feed live insects to our animals, then why not feed them with algae? After all, algae go with vegan. Unless, of course, there is such great demand from Asia that there is none left for the rest of us (I do love the way Asians have incorporated algae in their cuisine, and many believe it is part of their longevity recipe).
