The West is missing the seaweed revolution

A couple of months ago I reviewed the book The Seaweed Revolution, which describes the mighty potential of ocean farming – something I’ve been talking about for several years now. One of the things the book points out is that seaweed farming is well established in certain countries, and almost completely unheard of in many others.

China, Indonesia, South Korea and other parts of Asia farm seaweed, in some cases with mechanised processes. In the whole of the West it is harvested wild. Outside of Asia, just one percent of seaweed is farmed. “Westerners have remained gatherers at sea,” says Vincent Doumeizel.

As this graph from a recent World Bank report shows, a small handful of places have embraced the idea of ocean farming. China and Indonesia are responsible for almost all the growth in recent years, with South Korea and the Philippines making up the remainder. The whole of the rest of the world is that tiny purple sliver at the top of that graph – ie not really involved.

I’ve written before about just how useful seaweed is, and how it uses no land or fresh water, and no chemicals. There’s a huge opportunity here, and not many have recognised it.

Britain is taking its first steps into ocean farming, including the first seaweed farm located on a wind farm. We have some catching up to do, but this is a major growth industry to keep an eye on.