Author: Carrie Cox

The inaugural meeting of the Macroalgae Working Group was held during the Algae Biomass Summit on September 18, 2020.  Attendees included producers, end users, researchers, government agencies, and NGOs from around the world.

The group discussed a broad range of topics impacting the seaweed industry and had a robust discussion on what the working group should focus on. The group agreed that ABO, through this working group, should establish a scope and framework to bring science, extension and industry together to address gaps and needs in policy, regulatory frameworks, and industry standards, with particular attention on production practices and offshore production.

Seaweed farming can be truly regenerative and profitable aquaculture with significantly positive social impacts, including creating sustainable jobs. The group was in general agreement that since the seaweed industry is in its fledgling stages, that now is the time to set the principles on what it looks like to do this business well: creating fair trade guidelines, building the science, working on occupational and food safety, opening markets, creating industry standards, and doing so in a way that brings associated groups and businesses together under the umbrella of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the follow on effort from the UN Millennium Goals.

With these goals in mind, the group would like to give special focus to the ecosystem services for ocean health provided by seaweed farming, with detailed ecological accounting to capture the “trickle” effects.

It was noted by participants that some issues are very local, and require specific, local responses to resolve. The Macroalgae Working Group will need to include in their framework tools or guides that the industry can use in building rapport and collaboration with their local partners. 

ABO is not the only group working putting together efforts to bolster the seaweed industry. Another critical discussion point from the working group was the need to identify and interface with other groups such as the Seaweed Hub and the organizers of the Seaweed Manifesto to ensure maximum effects of efforts and to prevent duplication of work.

The call to action following this meeting is for interested parties to become members of ABO and join the Macroalgae Working Group to create the necessary momentum to push forward on these efforts. Next steps will be to flesh out the framework, scope or work, and pursue funding opportunities for this work.

If you are interested in the Macroalgae Working Group, or have questions about membership, please contact ABO Executive Director, Rebecca White, at rwhite@algaebiomass.org.

Following the Algae Food and Feed Meeting at the Algae Biomass Summit, the Algae for Food and Feed executive committee hosted a Town Hall on October 14, 2020. The Town Hall was a direct follow up to the discussion on regulatory initiatives at the Summit meeting, and the purpose was to get feedback on how many and what type of strains the Algae for Food and Feed initiative should move forward with for regulatory approval work. We are excited to share the results from the Town Hall with you as well as our next steps in seeking GRAS approval. 

Based on polling during the meeting, the most popular choice was to pursue Nannochloropsis sp. for food and feed. Chlorella was another popular selection as was Arthrospira (Spriulina). The polls also indicated that we should pursue both food and feed applications. A detailed breakdown of the poll results is below. 

The key takeaways from the Town Hall are:

• The group agreed that there is value in putting forward applications from a group of producers, similar to the successful submission by Cyanotech and Earthrise for their Spirulina product. The aim is to further algae product commercialization through this regulatory effort. 
• Through pre-submission conferences, the FDA can provide guidance toward a no questions GRAS letter. It is useful to engage the FDA early and often through the pre-submission conference system.
• As an industry, we must provide recent studies and literature to prove the safety of the strain(s) we put forward. This means that those that participate in this effort will be asked to assist with this effort – either through literature searches, providing samples, studies, or data, and providing input and reviewing materials for the submission, etc.
• We are looking into funding opportunities, such as Value-Added Producer Grants through the USDA. To apply for funding, we must commit to the strain(s) and application(s) and have a committed group of producers to support the work.
• There are a number of applications for algae as food or food ingredients, but few for feed applications. This is an area where we can break new ground and potentially see increased interest in participating.

The Algae for Food and Feed group will be taking comments on strain selection and application until December 1, 2020.  If you would like to contribute, please send your comments on strain and application, with your rationale for these recommendation to info@futureofalgae.org. 

We extend a special thank you to the participants in the Town Hall – it was a vigorous and productive conversation. This is an exciting time for the algae industry, and we are grateful for your input and support. 

Update 12/22/20: We’ve moved the deadline to qualify for 2021 membership discounts to January 15, 2021!

At the Algae Biomass Organization we are building a better future with one of the most promising new technology platforms. We see how algae cultivation, harvesting and product development can come together to improve global sustainability, feed billions of people, and offer new economic opportunity.

Our industry is seeing major advances and record funding in algae research, new commercial production facilities coming online, and innovative algae products making waves in a range of new markets, major media outlets like CNN, New York Times, CNBC, and Forbes are taking notice – highlighting the exciting products and research from the industry and touting algae as a potential global game changer.

Join us as we push forward to develop new technology, science, business development, regulations and public awareness about what algae can do. With our current membership drive, you can get discounted rates when you help grow out community:

Corporate Level Members:

• Existing corporate level members will receive a 20% discount on their 2021 membership for signing up new corporate level members.*
• Each new corporate member you recruit will also receive a 20% discount on their 2021 membership.

Individual Level Members:

• Existing individual level members will receive a 20% discount on their 2021 membership for signing up new individual level members.*
• Each new individual member you recruit will receive a 50% discount on their 2020 membership.

These offers expire November 15th, 2020 January 15, 2021.

Your participation in ABO puts you on track to play a role in building a new industry that is perfectly suited to meet the biggest challenges of our times. Be part of our community and invite others to do the same.

Ready to sign up a new member?

Read up on our member benefits and contact ABO’s Barb Scheevel today at 877.531.5512 ext. 1, or email her at bscheevel@algaebiomass.org

New members do not need to be coming in at the same level as the current member. The new member must complete payment by November 15, 2020. Following payment by the new member, the recruiting member will be invoiced for membership at the 20% discounted rate. Payment must be completed by December 31, 2020.

*Each new member will receive the new member discount. Recruiting members will only receive a single discount to their membership rate.

Who doesn’t love an excuse to make some spooky treats for the Halloween season? If you are looking for natural, brilliant color for your cookies, cupcakes and more, be sure experiment with some of these algae-based ingredients:

• This year will be a very rare blue moon Halloween. So consider using the deep blue pigments from spirulina phcycyanin (available online, here’s an Amazon source) in a “scream cheese” frosting to make blue moon cupcakes.
• And the iconic Hallween orange is easy to get without using artificial colors. Desserts, drinks and more can be easily deliver a bright orange pop with a little dunaliella salina powder.
• And make the fright real with Halloween’s most terrifying color: Blood red with algae-based astaxanthin powder. 

These algae colors may be fun, but they also presage a wave of algae-based products that are just beginning to make an enormous impact on our lives. Some of the cutting-edge applications include algae-based skis from WNDR Alpine; plastics and foams for shoes, backbacks and other items developed by BLOOM; and soil amendments developed by Heliae, Accelergy, AlgEternal and other ABO members.

Want the inside track on what’s next in the algae product pipeline? Be sure to become an ABO member to get updates, access to a network of global algae professionals, event discounts and more. Our current membership drive gives a 20% discount if you bring in a new member along with your own application! See details here.

Have a safe, but spooky, Halloween!

 
 Moon photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash

The virtual Algae Biomass Summit concluded last week, and the most significant takeaway was that the new online format provided a more dynamic collaboration than ever before, and with larger group of participants spread across the globe. Speakers, poster presenters, exhibitors, sponsors, and hundreds of attendees gathered continue the momentum to make algae a new source of sustainable products and services all made the first virtual Summit a great success.  

Global Attendance

Despite ongoing global economic and health disruptions, attendance at the virtual Summit was even larger than last year. Elected officials, sustainability advocates, CEOs, business development executives, scientific leaders, students and government agency staff from more than 30 countries all gathered over the course of several weeks to share the latest developments and plan for the future.

As the COVID-19 crisis was prompting ABO to shift this event to an entirely online format many participants wondered if the networking possibilities during a virtual event could match those of an in-person meeting. To maximize the potential, ABO adopted a set of new online event tools, and spread the Summit program over several weeks to allow attendees a chance to engage as much as possible. The online Summit gave attendees the ability to reach out and schedule meetings with any other attendee, view recorded content, and use a number of collaboration tools. Taken together, these adjustments made the virtual Summit into an unmatched networking opportunity for the hundreds in attendance.

My online experience with the Algae Biomass Summit this year has probably resulted in more networking than I would have in person! Take advantage of every opportunity and attend more conferences/meetings (many are cheaper now) if you can! #algae2020 https://t.co/8xsEXNagH3

— Samantha Cheung (@Sam_Cheung_) September 18, 2020

 

Big Ideas and Market Momentum

The virtual Summit’s program opened with a series of Industry Spotlight webinars that offered deep dives into particular segments of the algae industry that have demonstrated significant momentum over the past year. These sessions covered topics such as:

• Algae Based Polymers
• Managing Carbon Dioxide Utilization for Algae R&D
• Macroalgae
• Algae in Animal Feeds
• Algae Crop Insurance

Those webinars were followed by a series of keynote and plenary discussions by some of the most innovative leaders in the sustainability and commercial sectors that are being impacted this industry. The first keynote session was kicked off by Alexandra Cousteau, a well-known advocate for ocean health. She detailed how algae farming can be a boon to the productivity of the ocean, and help feed billions around the world.

Other notable keynotes and remarks came from Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), Congressmen Scott Peters (D-CA) and Darin LaHood (R-IL), EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, as well as leaders at the USDA and Department of Energy.  These officials detailed the ongoing importance of federal support for algae technologies, as well as their excitement for algae to become a source of fuel, feed, food and advanced materials. Much of the support for advancing algae R&D has resulted in technological advances as well as new products, and the economic growth that comes with the growth of a new industry.

At the conclusion of a week of keynotes and high-level plenary discussions, ABO’s incoming Executive Director Rebecca White presented the 2020 Algae Industry Awards to a number of leaders that have pushed this industry forward at every level. The awards went to companies developing new products and revolutionizing existing industries, and to projects that demonstrate the remarkable potential of algae to become a solution to environmental and economic challenges. Senator Tom Udall, for his exceptional contributions to the industry over a decade or more, was awarded the Champion of Algae award. See the full list of winners here.

From the keynotes and plenaries, the Summit turned to several weeks of almost daily technical breakout sessions that revealed some of the newest advances, research findings and commercial demonstrations. Virtual tours of Gross-Wen Technologies and Synthetic Genomics gave an inside look at how algae companies are operating, and the virtual poster sessions gave many a chance to share research findings with the global community. In the closing days of the Summit, ABO’s Poster Committee awarded six student scientists with the 2020 Young Algae Researcher Awards.

Next Year at the Summit

The success of the virtual Summit left attendees asking about the 2021 event. The online tools used this year will certainly be leveraged in future years, but we also hope to combine them with live events as the world gets control of the COVID-19 crisis.

Currently, planning is underway to have the 2021 Summit hosted by the University of California, San Diego. Before the 2020 Summit was moved to the virtual format, UCSD had been planning to host the Summit, and we are looking forward to continuing our partnership with them bring this community together next year, online and in person.

See you at #algae2021!