Stefan Gäth teaches at the University of Gießen, but also dedicates himself to a true beauty among the algae.
Image: Photo Uwe Marx
Stefan Gäth is actually a university professor. As an entrepreneur, he now wants to make a food palatable to the Germans that is not for everyone.
Spirulina platensis likes it warm, so it is sweaty to visit them for longer. “It mustn’t freeze,” says Stefan Gäth, who has given this type of blue-green algae a cozy home between small north Hessian villages. Blue because it takes on this color under UV light. It glows green under water. On his algae farm, spirulina grows in tanks measuring 50 by 10 meters and covered with transparent plastic. It’s sweltering hot nearby. Today the sun burns particularly intensely.
Gäth, soon to be in his mid-sixties and as wiry as a marathon runner, has had an eventful history. On the one hand, the waste expert from the University of Gießen has won the environmental award, on the other hand, he was convicted in a year-long process of assisting in the illegal handling of hazardous waste. It was about carcinogenic fibers that a company that had hired him as an assessor had improperly disposed of. He says he has endured tough years because of the long, agonizing court process. That got to him and is still not completely over. His reputation and his family would have suffered. One more reason for him to throw himself into his company and work with Spirulina platensis. Albeit not a nice one.
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