Why You Might Be Eating More Seaweed in the Future

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The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

To hear proponents talk about it, seaweed could solve a whole lot of problems. It could feed people, restore polluted habitats and be an economic boost for fishermen. Though seaweed aquaculture has grown in the U.S. in recent years, the country produced less than 1% of the global seaweed crop in 2019. Now, some companies are trying to get seaweed aquaculture to scale in the U.S. But there are regulatory hurdles to overcome, and researchers have questions about how a scaled industry would affect existing ecosystems. WSJ’s Alex Ossola looks at what it will take to make seaweed a bigger part of the American diet in the future. What do you think about the show? Let us know on Apple Podcasts or Spotify , or email us: [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free The Future of Everything newsletter . Further reading: Inside the Quest for a Super Kelp That Can Survive Hotter Oceans Cows Make Climate Change Worse. Could Seaweed Help? A Sargassum Bloom Is Hitting Florida: What to Know About the Seaweed Mass Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	With Ecolab Science certified, we take cleaning off your plate so you can focus on what's most important to your restaurant, your guests, and having them switch from giving your restaurant a go to spot.
0:10.0	Ecolab Science certified, count on a scientific clean.
0:13.0	Learn more at Science certified.com.
0:15.0	Good morning and welcome board the Ag Francisco Room.
0:21.0	10 o'clock down bay, Melwood.
0:22.0	Back in November, I took a trip to Portland, Maine.
0:25.0	It was already starting to get cold, but I bundled up and took a three hour ride on a ferry that stops at many of the little islands off the coast into Casco Bay.
0:33.6	You had chances in American ball,
0:35.6	from the side of Great Vap.
0:38.1	The eagles were cool, but that's not what I was there to look for.
0:41.6	I was scanning the water, searching for something a little
0:44.0	less fleeting. My source told me I should be looking for lines of booie's. I don't think I've really
0:50.6	seen any... Oh my God, is that it?
0:56.0	That was not it. That wasn't it for a pretty long time.
1:00.0	But eventually I saw what I was looking for.
1:02.0	Okay, so here on the boat, and I'm looking at a little ways away from me,
1:09.8	these rows and rows of colorful buoys.
1:13.2	I don't know, maybe 50 of them?
1:18.6	These buoys were holding lines of seaweed growing underwater.
1:21.8	They're still relatively rare in the US. The country
1:24.3	produced just 0.01% of the world seaweed in 2019. Most seaweed in the world is
1:29.8	grown in Asia. Now farmers and entrepreneurs are looking to grow more seaweed in the US.
	...

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