A growing global population, combined with factors such as changing socio-demographics, will place increased pressure on the world's resources to provide not only more but also different types of food. Increased demand for animal-based protein in particular is expected to have a negative environmental impact, generating greenhouse gas emissions, requiring more water and more land. Addressing this "perfect storm" will necessitate more sustainable production of existing sources of protein as well as alternative sources for direct human consumption. This paper outlines some potential demand scenarios and provides an overview of selected existing and novel protein sources in terms of their potential to sustainably deliver protein for the future, considering drivers and challenges relating to nutritional, environmental, and technological and market/consumer domains. It concludes that different factors influence the potential of existing and novel sources. Existing protein sources are primarily hindered by their negative environmental impacts with some concerns around health. However, they offer social and economic benefits, and have a high level of consumer acceptance. Furthermore, recent research emphasizes the role of livestock as part of the solution to greenhouse gas emissions, and indicates that animal-based protein has an important role as part of a sustainable diet and as a contributor to food security. Novel proteins require the development of new value chains, and attention to issues such as production costs, food safety, scalability and consumer acceptance. Furthermore, positive environmental impacts cannot be assumed with novel protein sources and care must be taken to ensure that comparisons between novel and existing protein sources are valid. Greater alignment of political forces, and the involvement of wider stakeholders in a governance role, as well as development/commercialization role, is required to address both sources of protein and ensure food security.
Digital library
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"Perhaps the single most important lesson to be learned by direct experimentation is that the natural world, with all its elements and interactions, represents a complex system and therefore we cannot understand it and we cannot predict its behavior...
Managers interact with the system: they do something, watch for the response, and then do something else in an effort to get the result they want. There is an endless iterative interaction that acknowledges we don't know for sure what the system will do - we have to wait and see... Interacting with the natural world, we are denied certainty. And always will be." - Dr. Michael C. Crichton, 2008
As of 2013 almost all Kappaphycus and Eucheuma production has been from family farms and almost all production has served as raw material for the manufacture of carrageenan. Production of Kappaphycus has failed to reach levels of supply that adequately meet demand.
Although there will always be a need for major supplies of Kappaphycus and Eucheuma seaweed crops from small-holder operations there is also a growing need for farming of these crops to be undertaken in adequately capitalized integrates multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems and for processing to be undertaken using multi-stream, zero-effluent (MUZE) methods withing satoumi seascapes. This requires the development of written agronomy protocolas that can be developed and improved as experience, research and development lead beyond the empirical methds that prevail today.
During more than 40 years of working in seaweed farm development I have obserced (and often participated in) many "failed" farm projects. Of course failure is inevitable for reasons clearly stated in the quotation (above) from Michael Crichton. The keys to eventual success are to make mistakes at as small a scale as possible; to learn from those mistakes; and to keep trying until you succeed.
The present monograph summarizes some fundamental aspects of cot+spin farming that I have learned from seaweed farmers, colleagues, scientists and "the school of hard knocks". I hope that they can help others to efficiently work through failed projects to successful conclusions.
This monograph is the lead-in to sets of agronomy protocols that we have developed for particular projects. Please contact us if you have a project that needs such procedures.
Iain C. Neish, September, 2013, Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia
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Information on Lester R. Brown's book, ‘Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity’.
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Fucoxanthin, a natural carotenoid, is abundant in seaweed with antioxidant properties. This study investigated the role of fucoxanthin in the induction of antioxidant enzymes involved in the synthesis of reduced glutathione (GSH), synthesized by glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC) and glutathione synthetase (GSS), via Akt/nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related (Nrf2) pathway in human keratinocytes (HaCaT) and elucidated the underlying mechanism. Fucoxanthin treatment increased the mRNA and protein levels of GCLC and GSS in HaCaT cells. In addition, fucoxanthin treatment promoted the nuclear translocation and phosphorylation of Nrf2, a transcription factor for the genes encoding GCLC and GSS. Chromatin immune-precipitation and luciferase reporter gene assays revealed that fucoxanthin treatment increased the binding of Nrf2 to the antioxidant response element (ARE) sequence and transcriptional activity of Nrf2. Fucoxanthin treatment increased phosphorylation of Akt (active form), an up-regulator of Nrf2 and exposure to LY294002, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt inhibitor, suppressed the fucoxanthin-induced activation of Akt, Nrf2, resulting in decreased GCLC and GSS expression. In accordance with the effects on GCLC and GSS expression, fucoxanthin induced the level of GSH. In addition, fucoxanthin treatment recovered the level of GSH reduced by ultraviolet B irradiation. Taken together, these findings suggest that fucoxanthin treatment augments cellular antioxidant defense by inducing Nrf2-driven expression of enzymes involved in GSH synthesis via PI3K/Akt signaling.
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Fucoidans, fucose-enriched sulfated polysaccharides isolated from brown algae and marine invertebrates, have been shown to exert anticancer activity in several types of human cancer, including leukemia and breast cancer and in lung adenocarcinoma cells. In the present study, the anticancer activity of the fucoidan extracted from the brown seaweed Undaria pinnatifida was investigated in human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells, and the underlying mechanisms of action were investigated. SMMC-7721 cells exposed to fucoidan displayed growth inhibition and several typical features of apoptotic cells, such as chromatin condensation and marginalization, a decrease in the number of mitochondria, and in mitochondrial swelling and vacuolation. Fucoidan-induced cell death was associated with depletion of reduced glutathione (GSH), accumulation of high intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and accompanied by damage to the mitochondrial ultrastructure, depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP, Δψm) and caspase activation. Moreover, fucoidan led to altered expression of factors related to apoptosis, including downregulating Livin and XIAP mRNA, which are members of the inhibitor of apoptotic protein (IAP) family, and increased the Bax-to-Bcl-2 ratio. These findings suggest that fucoidan isolated from U. pinnatifida induced apoptosis in SMMC-7721 cells via the ROS-mediated mitochondrial pathway.
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Brown kelp macroalgae — the strange, foul-smelling seaweed so often found washed up on the Pacific Northwest’s volcanic sand beaches — could ultimately offer an almost unlimited global supply of commercial-quality ethanol or biomethane.
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In many parts of the world wastewater is not treated at all or only to a limited extend because there are no resources available to establish an efficient wastewater treatment plant and there are also insufficient resources for operation and maintenance costs. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are nature-based solutions to treat wastewater in a highly cost-efficient manner. They can be very efficient and effective when well designed and maintained. Latin America is rich in saline natural wetlands. These can be used as prototypes for CWs treating saline process or wastewater. Similar to natural saline wetlands CWs can deliver several ecosystem services. This review focuses on saline wetlands and will first present the protagonists, the salt-tolerant plant species belonging to the halo- phytes with respect to their physiological and biochemical functions in wetlands. In a second step, their reme- diating activities which are used in many ways by local people will be shown in an exemplary manner. A number of CWs established in different regions, including Latin America, will be introduced as case studies. Halophytes are already being used in a number of CWs as biofilter but their usage could be increased, for example to treat aquaculture effluents and the biomass has a high potential for valuable compounds (i.e. metabolites) or for bioenergy production. Lastly, aspects of sustainability and ecosystem services of saline natural and constructed wetlands are shown with an emphasis on charting a way forward for the future holistic implementation of saline systems in Latin America.
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Long-chain polymers from many seaweeds, microscopic algae, and bacteria have been demonstrated to reduce turbulent-flow friction in water. In the investigation all water samples tested from inland and marine sources gained friction-reduction ability when enriched with sugar, as a consequence of polysaccharide synthesis by bacteria. Biological polymers, therefore, are the probable cause of the unexplainable variations in hydrodynamic test facilities. Bacterial polysaccharides were more effective than seaweed extracts at low concentrations for friction reduction, but both were much less effective than synthetic polymers. Turbulent-flow frictional measurements were found to be sensitive for the detection, measurement, and partial characterization of long- chain polymers
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In Europe, the consumption of seaweeds and derived products has increased in recent years, due to the expansion of Asian cuisine and the emergence of many top-level chefs. Often in collaboration with scientists, many have initiated a new gastronomy using algae. However, little is known about the quality and degree of freshness of seaweeds for direct consumption or fresh use. For this reason, different analytical methods were applied to test sea vegetables and other marine products. These methods included physical (aw, pH, color, and texture), chemical (total volatile base nitrogen, TVB-N; and trimethylamine, TMA-N) parameters, microbiological count, and sensory evaluation. In this study, freshness quality and shelf life of the green seaweed Ulva rigida (UR) was evaluated during a 12-day period, stored at 4 and 16 ◦C. The parameters that proved to be most useful for evaluating its freshness were the TVB, TMA, microbiological, and sensory analyses. The physicochemical and microbiological parameters established a shelf life of UR of 6 days for a storage temperature of 16 ◦C and up to 10 days for a storage temperature of 4 ◦C. The changes that UR undergoes during its storage from the sensory point of view are more pronounced than those produced from the physicochemical point of view, which can condition its applications.
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Throughout the course of development wheat seeds undergo changes in both fresh and dry weight and in moisture content. Between 10 and 20 DAF, both fresh and dry weights increase very rapidly. Accumulation of dry matter ceases at the same time as the seed dried out at 40 DAF. The natural desiccation period for wheat seeds is established between 30 and 40 DAF. Freshly harvested wheat seeds are capable of germinating during the period between 20 and 30 DAF but germinating capacity is very low. Increased frequency of germination along with the increase in seed age was observed in case of artificially desiccated seeds. It is noteworthy that the capacity of desiccated seeds to germinate does not depend on the degree of desiccation but only on their age at harvest time.
The amount of water absorbed by desiccated seeds during germination depends on developmental stage of seeds at harvest time. It was established that to the lower initial moisture content of desiccated seeds correspond higher amounts of water absorbed in the course of germination. Moreover for every investigated phase of seed development there is a determined degree of moisture and the water uptake of desiccated seeds can not overcome this value. Full maturity of field grown wheat seeds was reached at 50 DAF.
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Marine Agronomy Group, CAFNRM, UH-Hilo
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