The aquatic plant can replace plastics, be used for food, and feed our cattle. That’s why the future of our planet might depend on it.
Under the waters of the North Atlantic, hundreds of meters of seaweed rope lines used to farm algae are being strung up—the magic ingredient, a growing clutch of startups believe, in fighting climate change. While 97 percent of seaweed farming currently happens in Asia, British companies are looking to muscle in on the $13.3 billion industry—and maximize on the natural advantages their location brings to regenerate the planet.
Soy has become “a major agent of deforestation,” Hicks told The Daily Beast, with large swaths of rainforests being plundered to plant the crop. In fact, 80 percent of all soy grown is for agricultural feed. “If we could replace, say, 2 percent of cow’s feed with seaweed rather than soy on a bigger scale, that's a pretty significant impact."
Scott Spillias, a PhD student analyzing the potential role of seaweed farming at the University of Queensland, Australia, told The Daily Beast that “the best-case scenario for seaweed farming at any scale is that it generates food and material we can use for a variety of applications, whilst providing a regenerative role in the marine environment and enhancing local and global resilience to climate change.
“Even more limiting are the technical and socioeconomic challenges associated with farming the ocean," Spillias explained; like "how to design farms that can endure extreme weather events, how to make the enterprise economically viable, and how to implement policy frameworks that allow for seaweed farming amongst myriad other ocean uses."
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