In 1978, we chose the name Earthrise as our trademark and symbol. Apollo astronauts witnessed the first Rising of the Earth from the moon's surface in 1969. This powerful image represents our awakening to the miracle of our living planet. We rediscovered that blue-green algae, the original photosynthetic life form, 3.6 billion years old, offers remarkable health benefits to ourselves, our society and our planet today. We dedicated these gifts to a new awareness of our Earth Rising.

We established Earthrise as a spirulina sales and marketing company directed by Robert Bellows and Terry Cohen of Boulder, Colorado. Earthrise® began appearing in natural food stores in 1979. Around the same time, Light Force, a network marketing company, introduced spirulina through independent distributors.

Spirulina quickly gained popularity. In 1981, the National Enquirer pronounced it a "magic diet pill", and consumer demand exploded overnight. Many diet pill companies jumped on the bandwagon, and sold spirulina diet pills that didn't even contain spirulina. There wasn't much real spirulina yet being grown.

Earthrise people in 1981.

The diet boom faded by 1983, but the market began to grow again by 1987. More people continued to experience health benefits from spirulina. More published scientific research documented its therapautic effects. As President since 1981, I sold the Earthrise sales company to DIC in 1988, to begin a dynamic new growth phase. With an injection of financial resources, we rapidly expanded. Earthrise® trademark products are now sold in 40 countries, making it the world's best selling spirulina.