The algae blooming on the St Albans Verulamium Lake, seen as a blooming nuisance, may turn out to be blooming useful after all!

It just so happens that groundbreaking work is being hosted at this very moment by Rothamsted Research, investigating the possibility of utilising prolific marine algae to resolve climate change, the energy crisis, the food crisis, the credit crunch, disease, pollution and disease all in one go.

That's the staggering claim of Greg Peachey, Founder and Chair of the St Albans-based FREdome Visionary Trust. Their project, C-Green Solutions, aims to prove and implement previous research conducted over thirty years by a team of thirty specialists led by top international documentary filmer, Harry Hart, formerly as the Green Deserts charity, now superseded by Global-Eco. The concept is to rapidly cultivate nutrient-rich marine algae in dilute seawater and use that biomass to reclaim the wastelands that make up 75% of the world's land. We could then grow plentiful, extremely nutritious food crops and ethical biofuels, removing huge volumes of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process. Research by Dr Maynard Murray has further demonstrated that edible crops fertilised with the trace minerals present in sea-nutrients impart immunity to modern diseases, even cancer. James Grant, James Sholto-Douglas and Dr Richard St Barbe-Baker OBE additionally showed that working from the coast, newly-planted hardwood trees could actually bring the rains back to overseas desert areas and overseas agroforestry could restore the climate world-wide.

On a local scale, the vision is to cultivate prolific algal blooms under controlled conditions, and make fertiliser in which to grow high-yield, high-nutrition, pest-resistant, long-shelf-life edible crops. They will also engage existing biotech companies to convert some of the biomass directly into biofuel. Additionally they will dry and compress more of the biomass into winter fuel bricks, suitable for burning in stoves / power stations, and more… The project was recently short-listed for an award by the Big Green Challenge, run by NESTA 2008.

The experiment, being supervised at Rothamsted Research and funded by Nuffield Science Bursaries allocated by SETPOINT Hertfordshire, is being conducted on behalf of the FREdome Visionary Trust by three enterprising students from St Michael's Catholic High School, Garston.

St Albans City & District Council and their contractor John O'Conner Ltd have agreed to provide a regular supply of the harvested algae, which completely re-carpets the whole Lake within a space of two weeks. FREdome is currently seeking a biogas digester, a piece of land on which to pilot the process and a nutrition analysis laboratory to verify the mineral content of the edible crops. In this way, St Albans could become the first UK area to be heading towards self-sufficiency in locally grown food and fuel, and be renowned for leading the way in a finding solution to so many interrelated global problems.

According to Greg Peachey, "There is no need for doom and gloom on the horizon. There is no need for anyone to go short of anything."

When the experiment and pilot are complete, they plan to hold a news conference to announce the results. FREdome has been invited to run an environmental conference and exhibition at the Global Peace Festival this November in the Excel Centre in London. They will invite participation from existing commercial suppliers who can already provide parts of the solution. These companies will be able to showcase their indiviual means to help save the environment - but together they are capable of providing a new, dramatic and complete solution to the planet's problems, which far exceeds the sum of the parts.