NatuRose Natural Astaxanthin
is a Sustainable Feed Ingredient

Since sustainability has been in the news so much recently, we thought it might be interesting to consider our product in this light. We began by researching sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquaculture. It seems a definition for sustainable fisheries exists, but one for aquaculture is not as developed. Since there was no comprehensive definition by which we can easily measure our product at this point in time, we wanted to clarify some of our approaches to production that we believe make us a very forward thinking company that can contribute in a sustainable fashion to the nutritional components of animal feeds.

Cyanotech Corporation has always taken a pro-active approach to minimizing our outputs to the environment and to efficient utilization of our production inputs in order to produce as much high quality algae as we can, with as little waste product as possible. For example, our ponds are lined with food grade polypropylene liners. In this way we keep our nutrient enriched water from flowing into the water table. This also protects our product from absorbing any unwanted metals or organics from the lava rock on which our farm is located. We recognize that our major consumption from our local ecosystem is in the form of fresh water. As a result we have (without being required to) initiated a program of water recycling in all of our production systems. We have done extensive research in an effort to keep our nutrient usage as low as possible, while maintaining production of a top quality product. This, of course, is not only environmentally responsible, but is also economically responsible. We provide all of our organic waste (dried algae and dried organic matter from pond cleaning of our spirulina system) to the local agriculture industry as fertilizers free of charge, as we feel it is important to re-use these important biological nutrients as opposed to dispose of them.

Additionally, Cyanotech Corporation supports our local community in many ways. For example, we spend a great deal of money supporting our local environment and endangered species; in 2001 we received the Hawaii Audubon Society’s Corporate Conservation Award in recognition of our “significant contribution to native bird conservation in Hawaii.” This award was due to our work with the endangered Hawaiian stilt population, a program that we continue to invest in along with other conservation and environmental issues.

We believe that microalgae are the world’s most efficient producers of the nutrients required for life. We provide these nutrients from a part of the world ideally suited to produce microalgae with a low environmental impact. We take great efforts and invest heavily to produce and harvest these nutrients in a responsible and sustainable fashion.

For copies of the references or information on NatuRose® Natural Astaxanthin please call 808.334.9402 or e-mail bcapelli@cyanotech.com

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