0:04 One bucket, 5 minutes [music] to set up.
0:07 48 hours later, you have twice as much
0:10 protein as you started with. No soil, no
0:14 weeding, no waiting months for harvest.
0:16 NASA calls it the most protein dense
0:18 plant on Earth. [music]
0:20 Thailand has eaten it for centuries.
0:23 They call it eggs of the water. Two
0:26 things explain why almost nobody in the
0:30 West grows it. One involves water. The
0:32 other involves a lie we have been told
0:34 [music] about where protein comes from.
0:37 By the end of this video, I will show
0:39 you the exact fiveinut setup that
0:41 [music] turns any container into a
0:44 protein factory. But first, [music] you
0:46 need to understand why this plant was
0:49 hidden from you in the first place.
0:51 Welcome back to Secrets [music] Beneath
0:54 Nature. If you have ever wondered why
0:56 growing your own protein [music] feels
0:58 impossible while corporations profit
1:01 from your dependence, you are about to
1:03 discover something that [music] changes everything.
1:05 everything.
1:06 For generations in northern Thailand, [music]
1:07 [music]
1:09 families have harvested tiny green
1:12 spheres from still water. No farm
1:15 [music] needed, no fertilizer purchased,
1:17 just a wooden bucket. And patients
1:20 measured in hours, not [music] months.
1:23 They called it pumm. Their grandchildren
1:25 called it [music] breakfast. The plant
1:27 floated on calm ponds and drainage
1:30 ditches. It required nothing but water
1:33 and sunlight. Yet, it provided something
1:35 that should have been impossible.
1:38 Complete protein, every essential amino
1:40 acid, growing faster than anything
1:43 western agriculture had ever seen.
1:46 Then a scientist at Rutgers University
1:47 noticed what indigenous [music]
1:50 communities already knew. Dr. Eric Lamb
1:52 saw a plant so small you could fit
1:55 dozens on a single fingernail. It grew
1:58 so fast it defied everything modern
2:01 agriculture taught us about efficiency.
2:03 When NASA started searching for food to
2:05 grow on space stations, they tested
2:08 every candidate imaginable. They tested
2:11 lettuce, soybeans, wheat, and potatoes.
2:15 One plant outperformed them all. The
2:17 same protein source a Thai grandmother
2:18 harvests from buckets [music]
2:21 now feeds astronauts in orbit. The same
2:24 plant western science ignored for
2:25 decades became [music] the centerpiece
2:28 of space food research. We have been
2:30 told protein requires vast land, [music]
2:33 intensive farming, and months of growth
2:36 cycles. This plant laughs at those rules.
2:37 rules.
2:40 Picture this. Day one, [music] you place
2:43 a thin green film on still water, barely
2:45 visible, [music] just a scattering of
2:47 dots smaller than lentils floating on
2:50 the surface. Day three, a carpet so
2:53 thick you cannot see the water beneath.
2:55 The green has multiplied into a dense
2:58 mat covering everything. Day five, you
3:00 scoop out handfuls and the bucket looks
3:03 exactly as full as before. The plant
3:06 replaced itself overnight. Each frond is
3:08 smaller than a grain of rice. Bright
3:11 green. No roots visible on most species. [music]
3:12 [music]
3:14 Just pure concentrated nutrition
3:16 floating like living emeralds. The
3:19 texture is soft, almost silky when
3:21 fresh. [music] In Thai cuisine, they
3:24 serve it in omelets and soups. The taste
3:27 surprises everyone who tries it. Mild,
3:30 clean, slightly nutty. Nothing like the
3:32 pond scum its appearance suggests. Dry
3:35 it, powder it, and you now hold
3:37 something [music] with more protein per
3:38 gram than most things in your refrigerator.
3:40 refrigerator.
3:42 Now, let me show you the numbers that do
3:43 not make sense until you see them
3:46 yourself. Researchers Aenroth and
3:48 colleagues published their findings in
3:51 food chemistry. In 2017,
3:53 duckweed protein content ranges from 20
3:57 to 45% dry weight. For comparison, beef
4:01 is about 26% protein. Eggs are around
4:05 13%. Soybeans come in at 36% on a good
4:08 day. A study published in the Journal of
4:12 Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2024
4:15 found that one species called Lemn Gibba
4:18 reached 45% crude [music] protein. The
4:21 amino acid profile is complete. All
4:23 essential amino acids are present
4:25 meeting or exceeding World Health
4:27 Organization requirements for human
4:30 nutrition. The protein inside this plant
4:33 is mostly something called rubiscoco.
4:35 The most abundant protein on earth. The
4:38 same molecule that makes plants convert
4:40 sunlight into food concentrated into
4:43 something you can eat directly.
4:45 Here is where it gets strange. Current
4:49 biology published a paper in 2023 that
4:51 made scientists reconsider everything
4:54 they knew about plant growth. Under
4:56 favorable conditions, duckweed doubles
5:00 its biomass clonally in 48 to 72 hours.
5:04 A 2025 paper in Scientific Reports
5:06 called it the closest plant to what
5:09 researchers call the Darwin Wallace
5:11 demons, the theoretical organism that
5:14 reproduces as fast as mathematically
5:16 possible. Ziegler and colleagues
5:20 measured doubling times as fast as 1.34
5:23 days. Some species approach 16 hours
5:25 under perfect conditions. Compare this
5:27 to anything else you might grow.
5:30 Soybeans need 90 days minimum. Beef
5:32 cattle need 18 months to reach slaughter
5:35 weight. This plant doubles before most
5:37 people remember to water their house
5:39 plants. Now, here is where conventional
5:42 agriculture falls apart completely. A
5:45 2024 paper in Science Direct compiled
5:48 the numbers across multiple studies.
5:52 Duckweed yields 2,080 kg of protein per
5:55 hectare per year. Soybeans produce 303
5:59 kg per hectare per year. Corn produces
6:03 179 kg per hectare per year. That is not
6:05 a small difference. Duckweed produces
6:08 nearly 7 times more protein per unit of
6:11 land than soy and 10 times more than
6:14 corn. ACS Food Science and Technology
6:16 went even further. Under optimal
6:19 European greenhouse conditions, duckweed
6:22 yields 10 to 18 tons of protein per
6:25 hectare per year. Soy in the same region
6:29 produces 0.6 to 1.2 tons. One researcher
6:31 summarized it simply. The surface of a
6:34 small pond can outproduce an entire
6:36 soybean field. The environmental numbers
6:39 destroy every argument for industrial
6:43 meat production, food, and biorocess.
6:46 Technology published data in 2025
6:50 showing duckweed produces 0.4 kg of
6:53 carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram
6:57 of plant material. Beef produces 27 kg
7:00 of carbon dioxide equivalent per
7:03 kilogram. That is nearly 70 times the
7:06 environmental impact. Duckweed needs no
7:09 tractors, no pesticides, and no
7:12 competition for crop land. It grows on
7:15 water that would otherwise sit unused.
7:17 So why [music] did this knowledge
7:20 disappear from western awareness? Three
7:23 reasons compound each other. First, it
7:25 looks like pond scum. Western
7:28 agriculture values appearance and size.
7:30 The visual spectacle of a corn field
7:32 draws attention. A plant you need a
7:35 magnifying glass to appreciate does not
7:37 photograph well for farm subsidies.
7:39 Nobody brags about their floating green
7:41 [music] carpet the way they brag about
7:44 their tomato harvest. Second, it cannot
7:47 be patented in its natural [music] form.
7:49 No seed company profits from something
7:52 that reproduces by splitting in half. No
7:55 equipment manufacturer sells specialized
7:57 duckweed [music] tractors. No processing
7:59 facility stands between you and your food.
8:01 food.
8:03 Every middleman in industrial
8:05 agriculture loses money when you grow
8:07 protein in a bucket.
8:09 Third, the industrial food system
8:12 depends on complexity. It relies on long
8:15 supply chains, storage infrastructure,
8:17 and processing facilities.
8:19 A plant that grows itself in any
8:20 container [music]
8:23 threatens the entire model. But in
8:25 northern and northeastern Thailand, this
8:28 knowledge never disappeared. They call
8:31 it [music] ka nam, eggs of the water.
8:33 The genus wolfia has been featured in
8:36 local cuisine for centuries. Served
8:38 fresh in omelets and stirred into soups.
8:40 It was such an obvious protein source
8:43 that they never needed to rediscover it.
8:45 Dr. Wayne Armstrong at California
8:48 [music] State University spent decades
8:50 documenting every duckweed species on
8:53 Earth. He found wolfia globosa growing
8:55 wild within miles of major American
8:58 universities. The same plant Thai
9:00 grandmothers harvest. It was floating
9:02 unnoticed in American ponds, hidden in
9:05 plain sight.
9:07 Then [music] space travel changed the
9:09 equation. NASA needed food that grew
9:11 fast in small spaces with minimal inputs.
9:13 inputs.
9:15 Suddenly, duckweed mattered to people
9:18 with funding. The Translational Research
9:20 Institute for Space Health partnered
9:22 with University of Colorado Boulder.
9:26 Their finding, published in 2020, shook
9:27 everything researchers thought they
9:31 knew. Duckweed is the most proteindense
9:33 plant [music] on the planet. It produces
9:35 radiation fighting antioxidants called
9:38 zeoxanthin and luteine. It thrives under
9:41 artificial light at half the intensity
9:44 of normal sunlight. The first space test
9:46 happened in 1966.
9:48 Duckweed [music] flew on the orbital
9:50 vehicle satellite alongside chlorella
9:53 algae. That was decades before most
9:55 Americans heard the word superfood and
9:57 before protein powder became a
10:00 billiondoll industry. NASA already knew
10:03 what this plant could do. They tested it
10:05 on the MER space station. They grew it
10:08 in the closed equilibrated biological
10:11 aquatic system. Research published in
10:15 2024 showed that just 600 g of fresh
10:17 wolfier could meet an adult astronaut's
10:20 daily protein needs.
10:23 Now, I promised you the 5-minut setup.
10:25 Here is exactly how to do it. [music]
10:28 You need any container that holds water.
10:31 A 5gallon bucket works perfectly. A
10:34 plastic storage bin works too. A kitty
10:36 pool is good for larger production. Even
10:38 a glass baking dish on a window sill
10:40 will do. Choose shallow and wide
10:42 containers, not deep and narrow.
10:45 Duckweed only grows on the surface. 3 in
10:48 of water depth is plenty. More surface
10:51 area means more growth space. For water,
10:54 you can use decllorinated tap water.
10:56 Rainwater works even better. Pond water
10:59 is ideal if you have access. If you use
11:01 tap water, let it sit overnight in an
11:03 open container so the chlorine can
11:06 evaporate naturally. You can also add a
11:08 water conditioner from any pet store.
11:12 The pH should be between 6 and 7.5.
11:14 Most tap [music] water already falls in
11:17 this range. For nutrients, you have
11:20 several options. Fish tank water is
11:22 perfect. The nitrogen from fish waste
11:25 gives [music] duckweed exactly what it
11:27 needs. If you do not have a fish tank,
11:30 dilute any balanced liquid fertilizer to
11:32 1/5 the strength recommended on the
11:35 label. You can also add a few drops of
11:37 aquarium plant food each week. Even a
11:39 tiny amount of organic matter, [music]
11:41 like a decaying leaf, provides enough
11:44 nutrients to get started. Now, the
11:46 duckweed [music] itself. Float your
11:48 starter on the surface, starting with
11:51 enough to cover 10 to 20% of the water.
11:54 You can find duckweed in local ponds,
11:56 order it online, or get some from a
11:59 friend with an aquarium.
12:01 One tablespoon is enough to start an
12:04 entire bucket. Place your container
12:05 where it receives bright indirect
12:09 [music] light, 6 hours minimum. A sunny
12:11 window works, and a shaded patio will
12:14 work as well. Direct hot sun all day can
12:17 [music] overheat the water, but duckweed
12:19 tolerates more variation than you might
12:22 expect. Temperatures between 60 and 90°
12:26 F are ideal. [music] That is the entire
12:29 setup. Walk away.
12:32 48 [music] to 72 hours later, the
12:34 coverage has doubled. You will not
12:36 believe how fast it happens until you
12:39 see it yourself. By day five, you can
12:41 harvest. [music] Skim half the surface
12:43 with a small net or kitchen strainer.
12:46 Leave the other half to keep growing.
12:49 Rinse the harvested plants. Pat dry. Use
12:50 them fresh in salads [music] or
12:53 smoothies or spread thin on a tray to
12:56 dry for protein powder. One critical
12:58 warning. Never dump duckweed into
13:01 natural waterways. In some regions, it
13:04 can become invasive. Compost any excess.
13:07 Feed it to chickens. Give it to fish.
13:09 Add it to livestock feed. It benefits
13:12 nearly every animal that eats plants.
13:14 The aquaponics community discovered this
13:17 years ago. Tilapia farmers cut feed
13:21 costs by 50% using duckweed.
13:23 Backyard chicken keepers noticed their
13:25 egg yolks turned deeper orange within
13:29 weeks. Homesteaders in Arizona grow more
13:31 protein in a 50-gallon storage tote
13:33 [music] than their neighbors grow on 2
13:36 acres of alalfa.
13:38 Commercial interest is exploding. A
13:41 company called Parabel USA developed a
13:43 protein ingredient from water lentils
13:46 called lentine. Hinommen in Israel sells
13:48 wolffia [music] as a superfood
13:51 supplement called mankai. The same plant
13:53 available for free in most temperate
13:56 [music] ponds now commands premium
13:58 prices in health food stores. What
14:01 grandmothers harvested for generations
14:03 became a venture capital darling
14:06 overnight. Here is what they never
14:08 wanted you to understand.
14:11 Protein independence requires neither
14:13 wealth nor acorage nor permission from
14:16 industrial agriculture. The solution
14:18 floated on every neglected pond and
14:21 forgotten drainage ditch. All along the
14:24 Thai grandmother knew. NASA [music]
14:27 scientists know. Now you know. If you
14:30 found this valuable, watch the next
14:33 video and don't forget to subscribe. See
