Give Spirulina to kids in schools...

By TOMMY HOLGATE

Super-ulina . . . this green algae boasts so many positive side effects

I remember sitting down in Primary school and having milk. Or, more rather, we were forced to sit round in a circle and drink it until we could drink it no more [ie, finished the bottle].

I know the school was trying to do us good [it was a catholic school after all, and Jesus said to be nice to each other] and it was because it contains calcium, which is useful for bones and teeth.

But the memory I'm detailing here was the good old days of milk, before the genetic modification of cow's growth hormone levels led to an increase in production capacity for these churning bovines, resulting in pus-laden, potentially cancer-causing liquid that has a knock-on effect to human health [article here].

I envisage - in a nutritionally conscious world where children are taught properly about how to treat the body - a sit-down session filled with life-giving nutrients and superfoods.

Spirulina is one of the oldest forms of life on earth [also now widely purported to be beneficial in fighting cancer], and it has been claimed that 1 gram of quality spirulina provides a similar amount of essential minerals as 1kg of common fruit and vegetables.

NASA and the European Space Agency have even started reseraching ways to incorporate the substance into astronauts' diets for their Mars missions.

It is also extremely efficient in terms of how it is produced, and what energy results from it [taken from this Guardian article].

In her paper on food security in the context of a growing demand for protein, Dr Hanna Tuomisto calculates that the algae (along with ‘in vitro’ meat) has the lowest land use per unit of protein and unit of human digestible energy. 

In other words, it offers the potential to improve food security while also benefitting the environment by requiring less land to produce the same amount of protein and energy as livestock [this point is worth noting as there is often debate over how efficient veg farming is versus livestock farming].

I sometimes wonder why this kind of substance isn't promoted more by the government?

I suppose it is because natural, non-patentable substances, plus the good health of the nation [ie, less people taking prescribed medicine] do not necessarily equate to large amounts of money to be made by large food and drug companies.

Dr Urs Heierli suggests that the lack of widespread political support to date comes down to a misguided set of priorities:

"Political forces and their international institutions do not, it seems, consider hunger as intolerable and as a major human problem. 

"Malnourished children are not seen as future voters and many politicians appear to have other priorities. 

"The food industry was also not interested in fighting malnutrition, in the past at least, as this struggle has not seemed to be profitable."

Once again, profit is getting in the way of helping people.

It would be nice to see these kinds of supplements available - and administered in a creative way, blended with smooth fruit juices etc - in schools and hospitals.

There will always be somebody to say, 'but what about the cost?', but also - thankfully - there will always be Tony Benn's famous words, 'If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people'.

Maybe one day the government would be able to subsidise programs that get more nutrients into more human bodies. 

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I've heard people say: 

"You won't get nutritionally-focussed morally upstanding politicians chomping on carrots in the House of Commons for love nor money."

But maybe one day we could. With a little bit of either.

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