I have previously written about sustainably raising fish in rivers. Bren Smith has recently written the book Eat Like a Fish about sustainably raising edible ocean plants. He was interviewed on the Freakonomics podcast series.
Smith’s method of Restorative Ocean Farmer are in some deep ways (no pun intended) very similar and others very different. Like the Veta La Palma fish farm, it allows site by site adoption so as to not require disruption. And it also require no inputs and has really favorable economics. And my not counting it as disruptive didn’t stop Time Magazine from counting among the 25 top inventions of 2017
One big advantage over Veta La Pamne is that,it can started with truly tiny sites that can be expanded or replicated.
But (and it is a big but), the primary out of Smith’s farms is seaweed/kelp. We aren’t used to eating seaweed. There isn’t an established supply chain for it. His oysters, mussels, and clams find a ready market, but the seaweed no so much.
His non-profit, Greenwave, has a goal of enable 10,000 blue farms, like Smith’s. Each of them sequestering carbon, providing food and even helping to clean the ocean.
If we could help the world to develop a taste for seaweed (or a process to make eating seaweed more like eating something they we like), this could have a massive positive impact on the world.
I pose that that as your challenge for the day.
And if you succeed, in addition to fame and fortune, we will count you as having helped with suckage reduction.
