Algae For Breakfast

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31221, 19 November 1966, Page 5

Algae For Breakfast

the tiny plants on the surface of stagnant pools, are a valuable source of protein, and space scientists have been looking into the possibility of cultivating them in spaceships or on distant planets for food. But modern science was beaten to it in this case by the Aztecs in Mexico centuries ago.

Dr. W. V. Farrar, of the Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, has dis-1 covered that the Aztecs sup-| plemented their diet with blue-green algae from their| lakes and prepared it in such! a way as to make it not only| nutritious but palatable. In a 8.8. C. programme recently, John Newell talked about Dr, Farrar's researches. “Tenochtitlan, the Aztec i capital, was built on an island) in a lake of undrinkablyi brackish water, connected to I the mainland by three causeways. Ate Everything "The size of the city astonished Cortes, the Spanish conqueror, on his entry) into it in 1521. At a conser-] vative estimate, the popula-] tion was more than 250,000. “How, asks Dr. Farrar, was such an enormous urban community fed in a country of primitive farming, where the) principle means of transport) was the human back? There were no large domestic animals, the staple foodstuff was maize, and in those days the varieties of maize used by the farmers were not high yield-, ing. Better Fed “From contemporary descriptions of the wares on) sale in city markets, it’s evident that the people, although not starving and indeed much better fed than

many of the starving millions ! of today, were still pressing (hard on their resources. They ate snakes, insects, even the usually despised scavenging dogs. Their notorious human sacrifices, carried out on a vast scale, were often followed by cannibalism. In fact, they ignored no possible source of food, and especially iof protein food. “One of the first Spaniards to enter the capital, whose memoirs are now considered to be a classic of Spanish literature, says that shopkeep!ers sold little loaves, made from a slime gathered from the great lake. It had a flavour like cheese.

Eaten As Cheese “Other contemporary sources studied by Dr. Farrar gave a more detailed account of how this slime was prepared. It was dried, made into bricks and eaten as we eat cheese. It was, apparently, delicious eaten with a pungent sauce.” But for today’s scientists the most important contemporary reference, said John Newell, was one which said unambiguously that the cakes were clear blue. Although the Spaniards confused the issue for centuries by classifying the cakes as mineral, they are now known to be cyanophyta, the most algael speci- | mens of all, remains of which have been found dating back ’at least 2000 million years. Protein-Rich With the Spanish Conquest the practice of eating lake j slime fell into disuse, and with modem urbanisation and drainage schemes the original species has been lost beyond recall, which as John I Newell remarked, was a pity. “One big problem in using algae to help to solve the world’s food problem is that they are unpalatable. Here (was a palatable species, as nice to eat as a good cheese is.

“And it was able to grow on brackish water in the lakes,

whereas most algae today demand fresh water.

“Like some blue-green algae today, and unlike green ordinary algae, the Aztecs’ foodstuff may have been able to fix nitrogen from the air, which would have lessened the need for fertilisers. And blue-green algae have a higher protein content and contain more essential amino acids than any other plants. Altogether, modem science confirms that the Aztecs had found something which we could certainly do with today.”