Did You Know …

• 2.7 billion people face water shortages.

• More than half of the world's wetlands have disappeared.

• Agriculture accounts for 70% of our fresh water use.

• Algae protein production uses 93% less water than the most water efficient conventional crops.

• Using algae for protein production could restore a significant portion of our fresh water withdrawals for agriculture back to rivers, lakes, and aquifers.

• Run-off from agriculture is the leading cause of global water impairment leading to eutrophication of lakes, rivers, and coastal waters as well as contamination of ground waters.

• Eutrophication affects ~50% of all lakes in Asia, Europe, and North America.

• 1/3 of the world's groundwater systems are already in distress.

• Algae farms have no run-off, so algae production will reduce the eutrophication stress on lakes, rivers, and coastal waters.

 

We need algae NOW to replenish fresh water resources!

 

Global Algae’s unique technology enables our algae farms to generate 25x more protein per liter of water than alfalfa, the highest productivity conventional crop for feed, and 40x more protein per liter than soy, the next highest productivity crop.

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Algae Impacts

For example, the historical flow of the Colorado River is about 5 trillion gallons per year, and all of it is used, so the river is dry before it reaches the sea.  Approximately 4.2 trillion gallons per year are withdrawn for agriculture, primarily alfalfa and forage crops. If the production for half of these feed crops are replaced by algae, then only 2.2 trillion gallons would be withdrawn per year, and 2 trillion gallons could reach the sea.  This would involve building approximately 8 algae farms in the Colorado river basin (e.g. Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada).

 

The Murray river basin is the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and the Nile. The river flow is about 6 trillion gallons per year. Approximately 3 trillion gallons are diverted for agriculture, 1.5 trillion gallons are consumed by wetlands, and 1.5 trillion gallons reaches the sea. Half of agricultural diversion, 1.5 trillion gallons, is for pasture or fodder crops.If algae were used for 80% of the animal feed, then the same production would be attained with agricultural diversion reduced by over 1 trillion gallons per year, resulting in a 75% increase in the water that reaches the sea.