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The
Pacific Asian Atlantic Foundation
believes that providing emergency food to famine stricken
communities is a problem that must be addressed. It is our
responsibility to not only consider short-term problems but
to address and provide a viable sustainability source of food
to starving communities. |
Malnourished people like these are a common site in many parts of the world today, even though our world is filled with agricultural abundance. Our Agricultural Business Center Project does NOT provide food handouts as is common with most humanitarian organizations, but rather Teachers modern agricultural techniques combined with a cooperative farm ownership program to allow starving people to grow their own food and sell off the excess to create a self-sustainable business enterprise.
A multi-faceted program is put into place that results in a modern agri-business center that includes a food processing facility (canning), a manufacturing facility to produce state-of-the-art drip irrigation systems, a marketing center for exporting fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, and a center for the education and hands-on training of local personnel in the practical elements of agriculture, manufacturing, food processing, business, logistics/marketing and finance. The size of a typical Agricultural Business Center is 10,000 hectares.
The Agricultural Business Center would ultimately operate much like a typical California farming co-operative. That is, once the farm is developed and operationally profitable, individual plots of not less than 40 hectares would be sold to individual, local farmers. The buyers are given shares in the “co-operative” as part of the purchase of their land. The co-operative provides a variety of services and materials at discounted prices to its members. This will include the rental or purchase of irrigation and harvesting equipment, soil conditioning equipment and chemicals, education, and training. It can even act like a local water district for the distribution of irrigation water to other farm areas. Modern drip-irrigation technology is employed with the final assembly and maintenance of the components provided on-site.
In
seeking an alternative agricultural project we turned our
attention to complex proteins and high chlorophyll producing
plants. That requires arid regions to grow and no soil, to
reduce production costs and increase growth production. Hydroponics
became our focus and in that moment we knew that the only
plant that can provide high levels of chlorophyll and protein
was a blue green algae call SPIRULINA. |
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Give Spirulina water, sunlight and minerals, it will do nothing else but produce food and more Spirulina plants. Spirulina is such a sufficient food producer that it photosynthesizes at a rate of 10 percent sun/food conversion. (In comparison, soybeans can only manage a three percent efficiency rate.) Japanese Buddhist monks are said to survive on Spirulina and water alone. Spirulina, unlike many other types of algae, can live in brackish, still waters that are not suitable for other uses, such as drinking, fishing, or irrigation. Spirulina can also live in very warm waters, such as desert lakes and ponds that are too hot to sustain other algae. Because Spirulina grows in mineral-rich brackish water, Spirulina is an excellent source of many important minerals, including potassium, calcium, zinc, magnesium, selenium, iron, and phosphorus. The only single natural plant source that provides the highest amount of protein known to man that contains over 70% protein. Ounce for ounce, it provides more complete protein than meat, 5 times higher than meat and 3 times greater than soybeans. In fact the protein in Spirulina is 85-95% digestible, one of the highest available. Spirulina is second only to a dried egg supplement with regards to usable protein.
What we are talking about is "sustainability," "biodiversity," "integrated systems" and "low-input" with producing a crop economically in diverse environments with high yield harvesting.
