**You may have seen gorgeous looking pale blue smoothies or cakes or other yummy foods on social media lately. They probably got that lovely hue from Spirulina, a blue-green algae that’s a popular supplement to lots of trendy recipes. And Spirulina is more than just good looking - it’s got more than twice the protein per kilogram than lean beef and a whole host of other nutrients to boot.
What’s more, it could be an eco-friendly way of feeding the world. A new feasibility study suggests that Iceland, which already farms a lot of Spirulina, could pretty easily scale up their production with major results. In one model, the researchers found that Iceland could make over 240,000 metric tons of Spirulina per year - enough to feed over 6.6 million people.
The best part? Existing farms are powered by geothermal energy, meaning the whole process is carbon neutral. So it’s planet-powered plant protein production - say that five times fast!