Kelp Farms: Humanity's New Favorite Practice

If you've read my previous blog posts on this site, then you are familiar with the incredible benefits that seaweed farming can bring to the natural environment around us. However, what types of benefits can seaweed farms bring to us humans and our communities? Are there any? I mean, kelp can only do so much, right?

Kelp benefits our communities and environment (Yurasits 2019)

If you're asking yourself those questions then you'll be interested to hear that kelp actually has just as many humanitarian benefits as it does environmental benefits. Kelp aquaculture provides economic benefits, health benefits, and global food security to the communities that choose to use it. Sounds pretty great huh?

Seaweed farming is a new and emerging industry in the world. While Asia has had a head start on the practice, the US industry is miniscule and a blank slate for opportunity. According to a study conducted, 132 countries in the world could utilize seaweed aquaculture yet only 37 of those are currently producing any, and the United States IS NOT counted as one of those producing countries because of how small it's production is. This means that the seaweed farming industry in the US is untapped and holds great potential for providing jobs and economic stability to coastal communities. Reports from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization state that it is an industry worth more than $6 billion worldwide and growing. Kelp aquaculture uses zero fertilizers, has zero need for water, and takes up zero land space which dramatically reduces costs of entry when compared with terrestrial agricultural practices. Also, there is no management necessary for the kelp, just drop it in the water, let it sit for 6 to 8 weeks, and come back to harvest. This makes the process highly energy efficient removing even more costs. A current seaweed farmer explained that with a small investment, farmers can turn a profit in the first year which could rise to well over $100-thousand in the future. Creating a farm in a coastal community can help support the local economy greatly.

Map depicting countries using seaweed farming (Froehlich et al. 2019)

So then who is buying all this kelp? What is it actually used for? Well, kelp is used in an extraordinary amount of common items. Seaweed can be found in products such as toothpaste, lotions, medicines, cosmetics, and tons of foods. Many manufacturing companies, restaurants, and medicinal industries need seaweed for their products which means the demand for seaweed will always remain high. Yeah, a lot more utilization than just that sushi you ate last week.

Though, food use is one of seaweed's best aspects. Edible seaweed is actually considered a superfood and can provide a lot of those necessary vitamins and nutrients that you spend hundreds of dollars at Whole Foods trying to acquire. An interview with Suzie Flores with the Stonington Kelp Co. describes how seaweed contains high levels of iron, calcium, iodine, and antioxidants. A lot of these nutrients can't be found in terrestrial plants and most people seek in meats and fish. Seaweed provides these nutrients as a fantastic and cheap alternative to fish and various other meat products. Because of it's health benefits and use as a food, kelp can also help to ensure global food security, a daunting issue growing around the world. An estimate given says that creating seaweed and shellfish farms in just 5% of the US territorial waters can produce a protein equivalent of 2.3 trillion hamburgers and sequester the carbon emissions of about 20 million cars! Kelp aquaculture makes the possibility of completely eradicating food scarcity worldwide realistic. That is an achievement once previously thought to be impossible.

Providing jobs, growing the economy, increasing the availability of a valuable resource, benefitting human health, and creating a solution for global food scarcity. Seems like seaweed farming can do a better job at solving these issues than most politicians! Why wait to advocate for implementing this practice in your own coastal community? Maybe you'll even get volunteered to be mayor because of the groundbreaking idea.

C'mon, everybody loves sushi (Kremer 2019)