M. Barry Cohen
Algae for food and feed. Also, using algae to sequester CO2 at coal-fired and cement plants. We have been trying to communicate with FAO for the last 8 years with no response to date. Algae is grown today for food and feed and can totally eliminate malnutriciation. To date, the US taxpayer has spent over $2.5 billion on algae research and nothing was commercialized. There is a Congressional Mandate that restricts algae research grant recipients from commercialization and deployment. That is why NAA exists. We are made up of commercially-minded algae researchers, algae producers and equipment companies. We are involved in scaling-up commercial algae production on algae farms. We are the first algae production trade association in the world and the businesss intelligence for the industry. Our only suggestion to FAO: If you are finished purchasing more research reports and seriously want to do something about it, NAA stands ready to help train and assist in the scale-up algae farms and indoor algae biomanufcturing in third-world countries using existing technologies.
M. Barry Cohen
In our opinion sustainable soil management first needs to address the global algae bloom and HAB problems affecting rivers, lakes and oceans. Decades of algae bloom research, testing and monitoring have not fixed any of these devastating problems.
Taking a holistic approach from point or non-point sources, immediate commercial algae bloom remediation and on-going maintenance should be a starting point. Unless there is real commercial remediation of rivers and lakes first along with on-going maintence we will only be throwing good money after bad.