This section is for associations, sport clubs, shops and companies who share our values, use our products, are doing the promotion or distribution. It enables them to present our relationship, their activities, contact details and insert a link to their website.

You wish to become a partner, please contact us via the contact form

www.littlecloud.fr

Born from the meeting of 3 paragliding enthusiasts, LittleCloud offers new ways to fly.
Our philosophy is simple: create”extraordinary” products that provides a maximum of pleasure, dedicated to a wide audience.

LittleCloud proposes specific and multipurpose mini paragliders, easy to use, open to everyone They can be widely used under different conditions and for various purposes : mountain flight, flight entertainment on sites, soaring and flight for people with a slight build.

We chose to name our paragliders “Spirulina” having regard to the sensations felt after each flight, reminding us obviously the beneficial effects of this magic algae.

LittleCloud ‘s team wishes you good flights with our Spirulina.
www.littlecloud.fr

Production benefits

Conventional food production hides costs to the environment. Financial costs ignore the environmental cost.
Spirulina has no hidden environmental cost and offers more nutrition per square meter than any other food. It conserves land and soil and uses much less water and energy per kilo of protein produced than any other food.
Eating Spirulina and organic foods will improve your health and lower your medical bills compared to a diet rich in meat and conventionally grown foods.
The production of Spirulina does not cause pollution, soil erosion, water contamination or destruction of forest. Spirulina is grown without toxic pesticides and herbicides.

Its rapid growth means that Spirulina protein needs 30 times less land than soybeans, 40 times less than corn, and 300 times less than beef production.

Spirulina uses far less water per kilo of protein than any other food :
3 times less than soy, 6 times less than corn, and 50 times less than beef.

Spirulina requires less energy (including solar and generated energy) per kilo than soy, corn or beef. Its energy efficiency (food energy output per kg / energy input per kg) is 5 times higher than soy, twice as high as than corn and 150 times higher than beef.

Spirulina is a big oxygen producer.

Trees are the best land plants for fixing carbon, from 1 to 4 tons per hectare per year.

Spirulina is even more efficient, as it fixes 23 tons of CO2 per hectare per year and produces 16.8 tons of O2.
(with only the atmospheric CO2 and a 3.5 g/m2/d productivity ; 3.5*365 d*10,000 m2/1,000,000=12.8 tons of produced Spirulina and 12.8*1.8= 23 tons of absorbed CO2 et 12.8*1.31=16.8 tons of produced O2).

All these assets make Spirulina a high-value, environment friendly product, capable of being produced in disadvantaged regions. While commercial productions supply the food supplement market for millions of people over 6 continents, a lot of family or humanitarian production has arisen, enabling  local populations to be fed and combatting malnutrition in Africa, Asia and South America.

Credit illustrations : R. Henrikson

Sources

Many thanks to :

• Robert Henrikson for his kind permission to reuse his writings that you can consult on his remarkable site : Resources for Spirulina, Algae, Green Superfoods, www.spirulinasource.com or in his book that has not been reprinted but that you may still be able to find : Earth Food Spirulina, Ronore Enterprises Inc, California,
• Jean-Paul Jourdan, eminent expert in Spirulina production, for all the solid research and material he carried out, for the immense help and support that he has given to a lot of humanitarian or private projects in the world, for his active participation in conferences, training and other groups taking part in this adventure. His method of production and his « bits of information for people working with Spirulina » at : spirulinefrance.free.fr
• Antenna Technologies, for the numerous humanitarian projects they piloted, and all the documentation they have published on their site : www.antenna.ch

Some reference books to read :

• An excellent book from Michka : La Spiruline pour l’homme et la planète, Terra Magna Georg 2005,
• Another pioneer, Ripley D.Fox : Spiruline Technique Pratique et Promesse, Edisud 1999,
• A good cookery book from Belda Sisso : La Spiruline Saveurs & Vertus, Grancher 2003.

Additional information :

• Nutriments & Phytonutriments, a complete guide, www.healthvitaminsguide.com en Français sur : www.vitamines-mineraux.com ou sur : www.passeportsante.net
• Scientifics articles about Spirulina from 1966 to 2006, on Antenna Technologies’ site, www.antenna.ch/documents/BibliographieSPI_2006.pdf
  and their supplements from 2006 to 2007, www.antenna.ch/documents/Biblio Spi generale 2007.pdf
• Nutritional aspects of Spirulina, on Antenna Technologies’ site, www.antenna.ch/documents/AspNutr2006.pdf
• Spirulina against malnutrition, on Antenna Technologies’ site, www.antenna.ch/en/documents/Mono3cUK.pdf
• Spirulina food of the Aztecs, on John Libbey Eurotext’s site,
  www.jle.com/e-docs/00/04/1B/27/vers_alt/VersionPDF.pdf
• Spirulina of the Kanembus in Chad, by the Chadian agronomic institute for research and development spirulinagadez.free.fr/pdfs/Tchad_Sorto.pdf

In the 1970s, several companies began cultivating Spirulina in ponds around the world.

A pond of Spirulina is a living culture and the whole system, not just a few inputs, must be considered. If one factor changes, the entire pond environment changes quickly. Because algae grow so fast, the result can been seen in hours or days, not seasons or years like in conventional agriculture.

It is possible to find several different species of blue-green algae growing in natural lakes. Harvesting can pose food-safety problems if one species is toxic. However, by growing Spirulina in designed ponds under controlled conditions, a pure crop can be maintained, something  which is not possible in natural lakes. Producing Spirulina cultivated under these conditions does not allow growth of contaminating organisms.

Credit R. Henrikson

A Spirulina farm is an environmentally sound, green, food machine. Cultivated in shallow ponds, these algae can double their biomass every 2 to 5 days. This impressive productivity yields over 30 times more protein than soybeans over the same area, 40 times more than corn and 300 times more than beef. Spirulina can flourish in ponds of brackish alkaline water built on already unfertile land.

Clean fresh water and nutrients are added daily to feed the algae. No pesticides or herbicides are ever used.

Plants need carbon to grow; leaves take in carbon from the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, whereas algae need carbon in the water. Algae grow so quickly that CO2 cannot penetrate the water fast enough to sustain growth, so carbon in the form of sodium bicarbonate (used in carbonated water) or carbon dioxide (used by the food industry) must be added directly to the ponds.

Premium quality minerals like nitrogen, potassium, iron and essential trace elements nourish a Spirulina of consistently high quality.
Manual agitation or paddlewheels are used to mix the pond water for optimum growth.

Ponds are harvested every day during the growing season (all year round under tropical conditions). A first screen filters out pond debris, a second one harvests the microscopic algae, and the nutrient-rich water is recycled back into the ponds. At the end green, dough is collected, still containing 80% of water inside the cells.

The dough needs to be dehydrated immediately and packed for storage. No preservatives, stabilizers or additives are used in drying, and Spirulina is never irradiated. It is a totally natural product.

Under normal water conditions, Spirulina is simply one of many microalgae species.

But the more alkaline and salty the water becomes, the more inhospitable it becomes to other life forms, allowing the algae to flourish as a single species.

In natural lakes, the limited supply of nutrients usually regulates growth cycles. New nutrients come from either an upwelling from inside the Earth, when rain washes soils into lakes, or from pollution. The microalgae production grows rapidly, reaches a maximum density and then dies when nutrients are exhausted. A new cycle begins when decomposed microalgae release their nutrients or when more nutrients flow into the lake.

Harvest of Tecuitlatl (Spirulina) on the surface of the lake Texcoco in the 16the century (Florentin Codex, book 11)

Harvest of Spirulina by the Aztecs in the valley of Mexico. Human nature 1978 (Peter T. Furst)

Spirulina as a food source was recognised by the natives in Mexico and in Africa. The largest Spirulina lakes are around Lake Chad, others are in East Africa, South America, Asia and China.

The first written records of the food source date back to 1524. Fray Toribo de Bonavente reported that the Aztecs living on Lake Texcoco ate a blue-green cake called tecuitlatl. The Spirulina algae growing in the lake were the sole ingredient of the cake.

Other reports claim that the dry Spirulina was made into bread which tasted rather like cheese and it was mixed with grain, tomatoes, spices and chili pepper in order to make a sauce called chilmolli.

Alvarez JR. Enciclopedia de Mexico 1977 ;1 ;229-32

The Mayans of Central America were the first to cultivate Spirulina in a network of waterways. The water containing the Spirulina was also used for irrigating and, at the same time, fertilizing their crops.

Despite being listed from 1936, then discovered in 1939 in a market at Massakong in Chad by Professor Creac’h from Bordeaux, and described in 1940 by a phycologist named Dangeard from a sample brought back by a pharmacist, it was not until the 60s that a Belgian expedition brought back dry pancakes which were entrusted to P. Compère who will named it Spirulina Platensis. From time immemorial until the present day, the Kanembu tribe  living at the edge of the lake Chad obtained their main source of protein from Spirulina.

Credit : Olivier Barbaroux

The wind pushes the algae to shore where the thick ‘mats’ are collected by the Kanembu using fine woven baskets. The Spirulina sludge is then brought to the sandy dunes of the lake where the water drains easily into the sand. The hot tropical climate quickly dries the paste into a biscuit which the natives call dih’e. Millet, a daily food in this area, is served with a dih’e sauce which is made in a similar manner to the Central American sauce from Spirulina, tomatoes, spices and chili pepper.

Credit : Olivier Barbaroux

The Kanembu people eat Spirulina for 70% of all of their meals and use approximately 10-12 grams per person per day.

Since then scientists have  discovered that Spirulina is a safe food, which has been consumed for hundreds of years traditionally by indigenous peoples, and shows promising nutritional health benefits. If this blue-green algae were cultivated and consumed by millions of people, it would have tremendous benefits, especially for the children world-wide and the future of our planet. It seems to be the solution we have been waiting for.

Spirulina is the immortal descendent of the first photosynthetic life-form. 3.5 billion years ago, blue-green algae began to provide oxygen and modified the atmosphere so that other life could evolve. Since then, algae have helped regulate our planet’s biosphere.

When life began 3.6 billon years ago, Earth’s nitrogen atmosphere, without any oxygen, was rich in greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide and methane), the oceans were filled with iron, sulfur and other compounds.

The first living bacteria consumed chemical nutrients as food, some started to adapt the energy of the sun to make their own food. The first photosynthesizing prokaryotes called cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, used light energy to break apart the abundant carbon dioxide and water molecules into carbon food-compounds, releasing free oxygen.

After a billion years,  the oxygen absorbing compounds in the oceans were used up, and the atmospheric concentration of oxygen increased rapidly.

About 1.5 billion years ago, a new period began when oxygen may have reached a 1% level, and methane (a greenhouse gas) disappeared from the atmosphere. At this time cells with nuclei appeared. This more powerful and complex life-form (eukaryotes) was able to survive as a result of the higher concentration of oxygen.
About 600 million years ago, Earth entered the present phase with the evolution of large plants and animals, with an oxygen concentration of around 20 %.

The algae always were, and still remain, the main source of oxygen production. It is estimated that 70% of the total free oxygen on our planet is produced by algae.

Globally there are more than 25,000 species of algae. They represent two-thirds of the Earth’s biomass, and are now being recognised as an important source for food, and for making pharmaceutical, biochemical, and fertilizer products. Algae represent one of the solutions we need to produce food and simultaneously safeguard the environment.

Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae still cover land and surface water , and form part of the living mechanism for regulating the planet’s biosphere. They are the most primitive microalgae, and contain no nucleus or chloroplast. Their cell walls do not contain cellulose, and they do not sexually reproduce; they simply divide. The dead algae free nutrients, permitting the growth of new algae, as well as other life-forms.

Spirulina is one of the 1,500 species of cyanobacteria, which is a helicoidally multicellular filament, 100 to 300 µm long. It is classified as Arthrospira platensis.

Secured payments

Buy with Paypal in full safety. Spirulina Vera chose Paypal to secure your payments over the Internet.
Whether you have a Paypal account or not, wherever you are, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can buy and pay by credit card, safely.
Thanks to the remote system SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) used by Paypal, the information on your card you provide (number and expiration date) are not transmitted to Spirulina Vera.
In case of loss or theft of your card, no purchase can be done with it, if it has been reported to your bank.
The anti-fraud programs on PayPal are active 24h/24.

Spirulina Vera also proposes payment by check or by transfer. The account details for a transfer or the beneficiary and address for a check are given when the payment mode is selected by the customer.

Delivery and returns

Availability

Inventory management is automated. It is therefore in principle impossible to order a product which is out-of-stock. The unavailability of a product is indicated when viewing the product list, and the ordering thereof  is not possible.
However in case of error (system or stock), we will immediately report this error to the client who may choose to cancel the order and get a refund if the order has been debited from his account, or to wait for the restocking of the missing product.

Delivery

We deliver to all areas. Outside the European Union, taxes, duties and import fees may be due. These are charged to the customer, who agrees to pay them.
We offer several modes of delivery, from the cheapest to the most secure. It depends on the client’s decision to choose which mode of shipping will provide the expected guarantees.
Shipment is made according to the method of delivery chosen by the customer and the delivery address provided.
The normal postal delivery for France is 2 to 4 working days for a Colissimo, 5 to 15 days for other destinations. The post office has no obligation as regards delivery time, so we cannot guarantee against any delays.

Returns

Returns must be made within 7 days from the date of delivery and upon agreement between Spirulina Vera and the client. After this delay, no exchange or refund will be accepted.

The rules relating to returns (right of revocation, defective product) are described in the terms & conditions.

The shipping fees are payable by the customer. To ensure that the sales prices of Spirulina are kept as low as possible, we apologize for not being able to offer a discount on those fees for which we have no profit margin.

Tip: To reduce these fees (by sachet), it may be advantageous to proceed by submitting  group orders.

During the validation of your order, if you cannot find your country of delivery from the list of available countries, please send us a message so we can add this country to the list as soon as possible.

To calculate the weight of your order, count 124g per 100g sachet, and 174g per 150g sachet.

France, Corsican and Monaco

Above, please contact us

Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, Reunion island, Mayotte, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthelemy

Above, please contact us

New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, French Southern and Antarctic lands

Above, please contact us

Area A European Union, Switzerland, Norway

Above, please contact us

Area B Countries from Eastern Europe (European Union, Switzerland, Norway) and the Maghreb

Above, please contact us

Area C African countries (except the Maghreb) Canada, United States, Middle East

Above, please contact us

Area D Other destinations

Terms & Conditions

Company information

Spirulina Vera, a brand of Algensis

3 rd-pt Henri Frenay
Key West B.23
13008 Marseille

Tél : +33 6 49 27 42 77
Contact : Input message on the contact page of this website

Legal status : SAS
SIRET No : 533 873 709 00018 (RCS Marseille)
APE Code : 4778C
VAT : FR13533873709
Capital : 10 000€

These general sales conditions are concluded between the company, hereinafter referred to as “Spirulina Vera” and any individual not in business wishing to proceed for a purchase via the website Spirulina-Vera.com, hereinafter called “the client”.
These general sales conditions define the contractual relationship between Spirulina Vera and the client and the conditions applicable to all purchases made through the website Spirulina-Vera.com.
Spirulina Vera reserves the right to modify its general sales conditions at any time. In this case, the applicable conditions will be those in force at the date of the order by the client.

Purchase

Any purchase from a client on our website signifies the acceptance of these terms and conditions.
The purchase can only be registered on the website if the client is identified, either by creating an account, or by logging in with the ID and password.
It is considered accepted only after validation by the client, acceptance and confirmation from us at the Email address provided by the client. On this confirmation is detailed the content of the purchase and the information provided by the client regarding the delivery and the chosen method of payment. The client is solely responsible for the information provided and mistakes he might have committed during input. The content of the purchase will be delivered to the shipping address that was specified when ordering.
No order can be canceled after its validation. However, the customer may use his right of withdrawal.
We reserve the right not to follow any purchase placed by a client for whom a dispute is underway or was already in default of payment.
Each purchase will be executed within 3 working days from the day after placing the order, unless otherwise informed and within a maximum of 30 days.

Product features

Our Spirulina is produced in Costa Rica; it is marketed under the name Spirulina Vera. We offer the Spirulina in the form of granules or tablets, packed in a water-/air-tight sachet.
Our sales are made without intermediaries, which allow us to guarantee the lowest prices.
Our products are marketed in France and abroad.

Rates

The prices present on the product list are final prices in Euros, and do not include shipping fees which will be applied to the purchase or any discounts that may be allowed. The prices of the products billed are those which are in force on the day of the purchase. They may be revised in future restocking according to the fluctuations of the parity Euro / Dollar.

Availability

Inventory management is automated. It is therefore in principle impossible to order a product out-of-stock. The unavailability of a product is indicated when viewing the product list, and ordering it  is not possible. However in case of system or stock error, we will immediately report this error to the client who may choose to cancel the order and get a refund if the order has been debited from his account, or to wait for the restocking of the missing product.

Payment

Receipt and payment of any order must have occurred prior to shipment.
The client can choose the method that suits him among the choices that are offered (credit card, Paypal account, bank transfer, cheque) during the validation of the purchase.
Credit card payments are redirected to the Paypal secure server which controls and executes the transactions (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/buy/Index-outside). At no time do we have your financial information. In case of payment rejected by Paypal, order processing will be stopped and no delivery will take place.
Payments by cheque are reserved for clients resident in France, payable to “Algensis”. Do not forget to insert your order number on the back of the cheque. The dispatching of the purchase will only take place after cashing the cheque. Your purchase will be reserved for seven days. After this time the content of the purchase will be on sale again, and your order canceled.
Payments by bank transfer are required for all orders to be delivered abroad with a value greater than € 300. Expenses incurred by the bank shall be borne by the client. The dispatch of the order will only take place after receipt of the funds transferred. The details of our account to be credited will be sent by Email with the confirmation of the order. Your order will be reserved for seven days. After this time the content of the purchase will be on sale again, and your order canceled.

Delivery

Purchases will be sent to the delivery address specified by the client.
We serve all areas. Outside the European Union, taxes, duties and import fees may be due, they are charged to the client, who agrees to pay them.
The client is required to check the status of delivery and eventually notify the carrier of any damage that may have occurred, then notify us within 2 days.
The client is free to choose the delivery method. This choice is the client’s responsibility. By this choice we receive a mandate to organize the transport of the order with the carrier of his choice. The shipping fees are fully charged.
We offer several modes of delivery, from the cheapest to the most secure, depending on the client’s choice of delivery mode that will provide the expected guarantees. We will not be held responsible for the poor delivery of the order (loss, damage).
The normal postal delivery for France is 2 to 4 working days for a Colissimo, 5 to 15 days for other destinations. The post office has no obligation as regards delivery time, we cannot guarantee against any delays.
The method of delivery “Collection” is exclusively reserved for clients who have obtained our agreement and an appointment to collect or to have delivered their orders. With this method you can input orders on our website and enjoy the benefits of our loyalty and sponsorship rewards program.

Main steps in the purchasing process

• Viewing products,
• Selecting the products (placed into the cart),
• Selecting other products or completing the order,
• Cart summary,
• Procedure of identification,
• Choice of delivery and payment method,
• Validation of the order,
• Acknowledged receipt of the order by sending a confirmation of order to the mailbox of the client.

Right of withdrawal

The client has a period of 7 days from the date of delivery to exercise his right of withdrawal. After this time, no refund will be accepted.
In case of withdrawal, the client must beforehand keep us informed of his decision, then return the complete content of the purchase in its original packaging by registered post. Shipments against refunding will not be accepted.
Only products intact and in perfect condition for resale will be accepted. Any damaged product or packaging will not give rise to any refund.
The return costs are borne by the client.
If reimbursement is requested, the client will get a refund for the full amount of his order with the exception of shipping and return fees borne by the client. Reimbursement is done by check  in France or by international bank transfer whose costs will be deducted.
The refund processing will be done in the shortest possible time and within a maximum of 30 days after receipt of goods.

Product Warranty

The client is informed that we are not the producer of the Spirulina that is sold. Consequently, only the producer responsibility can be involved in case of damage caused to persons or property.
The damage caused by improper handling, improper or abnormal use by the client is excluded from the guarantee.
In case of fault or hidden defect found in a reasonable time by the client after opening a sachet (observable to the eye or to taste, and within the date on the sachet), the customer may ask for the exchange. After our agreement, receipt of the items involved and observation by ourselves of the defects reported, we will exchange them at no cost for the customer and this in the shortest possible time (within a maximum of 30 days).
The warranty covers only the exchange of products considered defective.
In no case will the client be entitled to a refund or compensation of any kind.

Force Majeure

Are considered as force majeure relieving the seller of this obligation to deliver : war, riots, fire, strikes, accidents and the impossibility of being supplied.

Responsibility

Spirulina Vera, in the process of selling online is only bound by an obligation of means, his liability cannot be held liable for damages resulting from the use of the Internet such as data loss, hacking, viruses, break in service, or other unintended problems. The transfer of ownership takes place from the moment the package is stamped by the postal services.

Jurisdiction and applicable law

These terms & conditions are subject to the French law.
Where a dispute arises from this contractual relationship, the parties agree before any legal action to seek an amicable agreement.
Any dispute which will lead the formation, execution or interpretation of these Terms, will be under the exclusive competence of the Commerce Court of Marseille notwithstanding all contrary clause of the client’s conditions of purchase or any of his commercial documents.