Spirulina: possible uses for an early space faring society

[takemeout_totheblack]

Guaranteed someone here has heard of this stuff. It's a species of algae something like 3 billion years old, it has insane nutrient, vitamin, protein, and carbohydrate levels for a plant. From what I've read from the website and the wikipedia article this stuff is literally the perfect food for early long-term spaceship travel and burgeoning colonies, it's needs are simple for growth, it's very nutritious, and it probably doesn't taste horrible...maybe.
However, I am not expert in the field of real-world science in relation to space travel, and I would appreciate any sort of feedback on the topic that you clever people out there may have.

Here are the info pages, there's more but I'm only posting the two
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_ ... plement%29
http://www.iimsam.org/

[CaptainChewbacca]

and it probably doesn't taste horrible...maybe.

Its worse than horrible, it tastes like something that ass would be embarrased to taste like.

[takemeout_totheblack]

and it probably doesn't taste horrible...maybe.

Its worse than horrible, it tastes like something that ass would be embarrased to taste like.

Well... here's hoping it can be flavored...

[Broomstick]

and it probably doesn't taste horrible...maybe.

Its worse than horrible, it tastes like something that ass would be embarrased to taste like.

^ What he said. It's utterly repulsive in flavor, truly gag-worthy, and must (in my mind) be liberally mixed with something else just to get it down, and even then, it ruins the flavor of whatever you use to mask it. It has nothing to do with being algae, as there are some quite tasty examples such a nori, kombu, and dulse, it's because spirulina tastes like shit gone bad. As a general rule, if it has a common name it's reasonable as a foodstuff, if all it has is a scientific binomial it may be nutritious but tastes so horrible no one would eat it without the threat of imminent death by starvation.

Oh, alright - in minute quantities you can get away with, but if you stuck me on a spaceship with only that to consume I'd seriously consider stepping out the airlock naked. I suppose you can get used to the taste if you have to.

There is also the problem of the texture (it's pond scum, m'kay?). Also, a distinct lack of dietary fiber which, although not nutritional, is still required for optimum health, or just plain old taking a regular shit.

I've been hearing people proclaim spirulina as a wonder food for the space age since the Apollo program. Ain't happened yet, although you can buy the shit in any "health food store" around. People don't eat it because it tastes bad.

[takemeout_totheblack]

Ah, good.
But I was thinking more along the lines of 'grown in space on a ship along with other better tasting things' The logic being that the Spirulina will be a nutritional additive and an energy dense supplement in case shit goes down. Also it's easy as dirt to grow: Brackish water + nutrients suspended in water + sunlight/UV = Spirulina and an unhappy but healthy meal. Dunno about the fiber though...

[Serafina]

Best use is propably to feed it to a bunch of animals and eat them afterwards.

Propably way easier than breaking it down so you can mix the nutritients into something else.
And if you have to flavor it - well, that flavor takes up storage space, too.

[Zixinus]

Best use is propably to feed it to a bunch of animals and eat them afterwards.

Except that even some animals have tastes. Animals do identify what they can eat by taste and smell. If the stuff tastes horrible, looks horrible and smells horrible, then even the animals would rather starve or only eat it grudgingly.

[Simon_Jester]

So... it's effectively inedible unless someone figures out how to tweak its genes to kill the taste. In which case there are probably lots of other things that could be made into comparably useful foods for the same cost, since you'd already be committed to rewriting the genome of the algae species.

[darthdavid]

Best use is propably to feed it to a bunch of animals and eat them afterwards.

Except that even some animals have tastes. Animals do identify what they can eat by taste and smell. If the stuff tastes horrible, looks horrible and smells horrible, then even the animals would rather starve or only eat it grudgingly.

Plus meat can take on the flavor of whatever the animal's been eating...

[Molyneux]

The next reasonable question, then, is - WHY does it taste like shit? Is it some facet of the organism independent of its nutritional qualities, or is it tied in with them? Would it be possible to breed for better-tasting spirulina, and maybe encourage production of fiber at the same time?

[Broomstick]

I think if you made it taste good and caused it to make fiber it probably couldn't be considered spirulina anymore... not that that would be an inherent problem, mind you.

Anyhow - things that are highly nutritious AND largely defenseless (pond scum would fit that definition) tend to either evolve defenses like bad taste or poison OR they go extinct. That's why stromatolites, which several billion years ago dominated the planet, are now found only in a very few hypersaline locations. All the other examples were eaten long ago because it has no defenses.

So, if spirulina evolved the bad taste to avoid being eaten... well, it apparently works. It might well be possible to genetically engineer the bad taste away, perhaps even substitute other flavors, as we would then be protecting and nurturing our designer pond scum from the threatening universe. It would have acquired us as a defense. Arguably, it would be a symbiosis, with spirulina providing yummy food and us providing protection. Such things have happened multiple times in history, so it's certainly possible.

It would certainly be interesting to attempt such a thing.

[Gil Hamilton]

Ah, that's a beautiful thing you just said, Broomstick. The noble GM-spirulina, floating its pH and temperature controlled, nutrient rich, pools with billions of its sister algae, sightlessly and lovingly gazing up at its guarantuan Gods, who gently stir them so that all spirulinas get as fair a meal as possible. Oh, what tales they would tell!

However, I imagine figuring out which set of molecules produces the nasty funk taste shouldn't be that hard and then the task is figuring out what genes are the baddies, cutting them out, and giving the spirulinae a nice tasty pool to mass reproduce in. You could even then do normal natural selection and allow only the tastiest spirulinae to breed so being delicious is a reproductive advantage (well, you can do that anyway without the GM).

[Molyneux]

Ah, that's a beautiful thing you just said, Broomstick. The noble GM-spirulina, floating its pH and temperature controlled, nutrient rich, pools with billions of its sister algae, sightlessly and lovingly gazing up at its guarantuan Gods, who gently stir them so that all spirulinas get as fair a meal as possible. Oh, what tales they would tell!

However, I imagine figuring out which set of molecules produces the nasty funk taste shouldn't be that hard and then the task is figuring out what genes are the baddies, cutting them out, and giving the spirulinae a nice tasty pool to mass reproduce in. You could even then do normal natural selection and allow only the tastiest spirulinae to breed so being delicious is a reproductive advantage (well, you can do that anyway without the GM).

Hey, it worked for wheat, corn, bananas, etc...

[Gil Hamilton]

Hey, it worked for wheat, corn, bananas, etc...

It's tried and true. No reason it couldn't work on the noble spirulina. A peach is just a bitter almond with a college education, after all.