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food / travel

Algae, The Food That Could Save Humanity

Cooked in Asia for centuries, this protein-rich marine plant is making its way onto our plates.

Cultivating seaweed in Bali, Indonesia
Cultivating seaweed in Bali, Indonesia
JP Géné

With the world's population expected to reach the 9 billion mark by around 2050, specialists of all stripes are concerned about feeding the next generations.

Reports periodically come out suggesting that the answer lies in the reduction of food waste, the intensive harvesting of GMO crops, a more widespread reliance on organic agriculture, the establishment of a global vegetarian regime or the successful conversion of meat-loving cultures to diets rich in soy or tofu.

The latest brouhaha — backed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO — has focused on insects, which scientists have promoted as a new source of protein. With news reports covering grasshopper breeding in apartments, short-winged cricket cooking lessons and taste comparisons between Thai organic bamboo worms and giant mealworms, it's safe to say the issue has captivated the media's attention.

But this press frenzy has hardly changed the world's culinary habits, especially in Western countries.

Luckily, there is an alternative marine solution, one that could significantly help, if not guarantee, mankind's survival: algae, which has been popular in Asian cooking for centuries. This abundant resource is even more important considering that it can be cultivated or harvested in the wild.

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Seaweed salad — Photo: Joselu Blanco

According to the FAO, global algae production has gone from 2 million tons in the 1970s to more than 25 million in 2013, with 90% of species coming from algaculture and the remainder from the wild. About 60% is used in pharmacology, cosmetology or as fertilizer.

But 40% ends up in our plates in one form or another: fresh, as a condiment, dried, frozen or mixed in with other ingredients. We eat algae every day without realizing it. Agar-agar, for instance, is an algae additive that has been replacing the gelatin in cooked meats, candy and cookies over the last four decades.

Oceans and rivers contain more than 100,000 species of algae, but only 145 of these are consumed in the world, including 24 that are authorized in France: eight species of brown algae (wakame, kombu, thongweed, fucus), 11 of red algae (dulse, nori), two of green algae (sea lettuce) and three of micro-algae (spirulina).

Rich in protein, iodine, calcium, mineral salts and all sorts of vitamins, the different types of algae help prevent cardiovascular diseases and boost our immune systems. These undersea plants are not harmed by land disasters. The only drawback: They are vulnerable to oil spills and contamination by heavy metals, which harm their unanimously recognized nutritional qualities.

The French, who grow and harvest 80,000 tons of algae along the 2,700-kilometer stretch of Brittany coast, only consume 1,500 tons per year, compared with the 2 million tons consumed by the Japanese. In their defense, the red tides that pollute Brittany beaches with excrement from intensive pig farms hardly stir up enthusiasm, let alone appetite.

Most foodies who have never traveled to Japan discover algae in sushi bars: Maki, miso soup and wakame salad serve as the introductory trio of the marine vegetable world.

French products

Which are the most popular types of algae? Nori, famed for wrapping up maki, is the most consumed algae in the world. Collected in Brittany by hand at low tide, it has a very distinctive taste, similar to Chinese smoked tea.

Next up, wakame, a dark green algae found in brine; it makes for a great fresh salad with sesame oil and seeds. With its highly salty flavor, wakame is closer in taste to the oyster, and it is generally used in Japanese miso soup.

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Algae salad — Photo: San

Kombu is a long brown algae collected in France in the Molène archipelago. Slightly sweeter than the wakame, the kombu is grown in the Finistère department. With dried skipjack shavings, it is one of the two pillars of dashi, the famous aromatic broth that is used as the base ingredient of many Asian dishes.

Sea lettuce is also growing increasingly popular. Very green and slightly peppery, it, too grows in Brittany and is often used in salads.

Algae tastes good, but that's not all. An algae-based vaccine could help reinforce the immune systems of battery-reared chickens, and prevent them from being stuffed with preventive antibiotics. Tests carried out on 500,000 birds seem promising.

Salvation could come from the seas.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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