The health and environmental benefits of sugar kelp | 60 Minutes Archive
In a Nutshell
Bren Smith has pioneered 3D ocean farming of sugar kelp and shellfish in Connecticut, growing crops that require no fertilizer, fresh water, or land while generating new income for former fishermen. The farms also combat ocean acidification by absorbing CO2 and may improve conditions for shellfish. Greenwave is now scaling the model to help others start profitable ocean farms with low startup costs.
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Many people view seaweed as a nuisance that clogs nets, tangles ankles, and washes up on beaches. Its name implies something undesirable. However, increasing numbers of fishermen, scientists, and foodies in the United States are viewing seaweed differently as a promising source of food, jobs, and help cleaning ocean waters. With rising global populations and limited land for agriculture expansion, they are turning to the sea and its weeds as a new frontier.
Bren Smith is the nation's leading advocate for ocean farming. On a cold December day, the segment joined him to visit his farm by boat. His staple crop is sugar kelp, a type of seaweed. The farm is located underwater with white buoys marking edges and black buoys holding up a horizontal rope below the surface in rows of crops. The seed appears as a tube covered in fuzz with baby plants about 2 mm that will grow to 15-18 feet by spring. It is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Unlike plants grown in earth, seaweed does not need fertilizer or fresh water. It is called a zero input crop.
The process involves attaching the string the kelp grows on to rope and suspending it 8 feet underwater. In five or six months, the fuzz develops into mature crop. Smith began leasing the right to farm a 20-acre plot of water in 2012 from the state of Connecticut. His was the first commercial seaweed farm in the state. Now there are nine with a half dozen more in the works. Smith hopes that in 10-20 years there will be thousands of farmers doing this, viewing it as the future of moving out into the ocean while doing it the right way.
Smith spent most of his life working the oceans on industrial fishing boats targeting lobster, tuna, and cod. He describes tearing up whole ecosystems with trawls, fishing in illegal waters, and chasing fewer and fewer fish further out to sea. The oceans once seemed boundless and bountiful. Fishermen jobs are described as soul filling, similar to coal workers, farmers, and steel workers. Cod stocks crashed due to overfishing. After reinventing himself cultivating oysters in Long Island Sound, hurricanes Irene and Sandy destroyed his crop two years in a row, leaving him on the verge of bankruptcy.
Smith sought advice from Charlie Yarish, a professor of marine biology at the University of Connecticut whose lab studies thousands of different types of seaweeds. Only 20 are actually farmed globally. Some are toxic and not edible. Yarish suggested sugar kelp, a local seaweed planted after hurricane season. It has a mild taste and can be used as animal feed and fertilizer. This was described as the light bulb or Eureka moment for creating jobs, protecting and improving the environment without having to choose between the two.
Smith operates one of the largest seaweed hatcheries in the country with tanks full of developing kelp spores and a processing room that activates in spring during harvest. Kelp is blanched in 170° water, turning vivid green, and can be sold fresh or frozen, sometimes as noodles. Customers include Google for their cafeteria, Yale University, and several restaurants and wholesalers. He has sold out the last four years.
A test farm outside Seattle run by Betsy Peabody of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund focuses on whether seaweed can help fight ocean acidification caused mainly by increasing carbon dioxide levels. Roughly 25% of CO2 in the atmosphere is absorbed into oceans from fossil fuels, carbon emissions, and deforestation. When carbon dioxide enters the ocean, it causes chemical changes including increased water acidity. The US government's 2017 climate science special report documents that excess CO2 causes a decrease of carbonate ions used by marine species to build shells and skeletons. Worldwide, ocean surface waters have become 30% more acidic over the last 150 years. In the Pacific Northwest, currents bring more carbon-rich waters to the surface.
Kelp takes up carbon dioxide like any plant does while living in water. Organisms producing carbonate shells like shellfish are losers in ocean acidification because they cannot handle lower pH or deposit as much calcium in shells. Seaweeds like kelp pick up carbon dioxide more easily for photosynthesis. Seaweeds and kelp pull CO2 out of the water, equivalent to planting trees in the ocean. Scientific monitoring buoys measure how water changes as it flows through the kelp field and test whether baby shellfish grown with kelp build shells better. Results were expected in more than a year.
Bren Smith grows shellfish on his kelp farm as good business. In November, his team loaded thousands of baby mussels into netting resembling massive sausages and suspended them from ropes below the kelp. He calls it 3D ocean farming because it uses the entire water column. Stacking crops allows efficiency without using large plots of ocean while producing more food. The system includes seaweed and kelp at the top, mussels underwater, scallops off the same lines, and cages with oysters at the bottom. One oyster variety is called thimble island salts. Mussels were midsize and expected to double before harvest at the same time as kelp.
Smith identifies as a farmer and ocean farmer. He tells fishermen they must make the transition from being a hunter to a farmer. He emphasizes keeping elements of fishing life: owning one's own boat, succeeding and failing on one's own terms, and having pride in feeding the country. He launched a nonprofit called Greenwave to encourage others to follow his lead.
Husband and wife Jay Douglas and Susie Flores are among his disciples. Douglas, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, learned on Smith's farm, spent a year getting a permit for his own Connecticut ocean plot, and built 36 anchors from scratch. Greenwave provides free seed and guarantees to buy 80% of harvest for the first two years. With a $10,000 to $20,000 investment and a boat, new farmers can turn a small profit the first year, rising to well over $100,000 later. Some people question the endeavor and ask what the anchors are for or what kelp is.
Chef and author Barton Seaver has written a cookbook of seaweed recipes. He believes Americans will buy seaweed, noting that 10 years ago kale was not on shelves. He suggests the name seaweed should change to sea greens. He recommends integrating sea greens into familiar dishes like an Italian recipe typically using spinach. Kelp is rich in calcium, fiber, iron, and antioxidants. Tasting revealed it did not taste fishy or seaweedy. Smith states the oceans are a blank slate for his generation to farm and grow food while soaking up carbon and nitrogen, creating jobs, enabling small businesses, and fulfilling his dream of working at sea. His goal is to die on his boat one day.
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