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Meet the new US entrepreneurs farming seaweed for food and fuel
The Manchester Guardian ^ | June 29, 2017 | Katie Fehrenbacher

Posted on 06/29/2017 6:19:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Michael Graham reaches into a bright blue tub of bubbling water and pulls out a handful of a dark brown curly substance. It’s slippery to the touch, smells like the sea, and tastes a bit like salty kale.

It’s live seaweed, and Graham – a kelp biologist and the creator of Monterey Bay Seaweeds – has been farming the stuff on a small scale in these big tanks in Moss Landing on the central coast of California for close to two years. Using more than a dozen of these big tubs and a couple of larger tanks, he produces between 50 and 100lbs of seaweed per week.

Graham, along with his wife and seven children, grow and sell their seaweed to upscale restaurants in Monterey and the San Francisco Bay Area, such as Farallon and Hog Island Oyster Company. He routinely walks into the back of these restaurants in shorts and flip-flops and hands over the live seaweed in bags of seawater to his chef customers, who use it to accompany shellfish dishes or as a sprig in a bloody mary.

Graham is part of a growing group of entrepreneurs looking to build businesses around farming seaweed, long-prized in Asian countries for its nutritional value, high-protein content and health benefits. But in contrast to many of the sprawling farms in China, these entrepreneurs are looking to create new business models, farming methods, technologies and designs that incorporate environmental sustainability and ocean biodiversity.....

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food
KEYWORDS: jobs; seaweed

1 posted on 06/29/2017 6:19:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t know how much seaweed is farmed by China (somehow I doubt Japan is in that particular food pipeline) but I like seaweed with my sushi. I’d much rather it came from the states. I prefer my food clean.


2 posted on 06/29/2017 6:29:06 PM PDT by Artemis Webb (Maxine Waters for House Minority Leader!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

3 posted on 06/29/2017 6:50:21 PM PDT by doug from upland (Mayflower Hotel --- hotel of choice for Dem officials and their hookers)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bathtub “sea” weed.


4 posted on 06/29/2017 7:03:14 PM PDT by sagar
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To: Artemis Webb

I absolutely LOVE seaweed and incorporate it in almost all the soups I make. Then I put it into stews (not those with a flour thickening base)...especially into soups and stews with clear chicken or beef or vegetable broth.

I eat it raw and dried....It is a lovely snack.

Sushi with sea weed is delightful. Don’t get much really good sushi in the Big Empty. Sigh.


5 posted on 06/29/2017 7:04:00 PM PDT by Bodega (we are developing less and less common sense...world wide)
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To: doug from upland

Hey doug from upland. It’s great to see you again. How are you?


6 posted on 06/29/2017 7:28:13 PM PDT by tillacum (I'm still a Deplorable.)
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To: Bodega

I understand Costco is selling it in bricks. I’ve just heard about it. Unfortunately it isn’t available here in TX. Each group who gather seaweed preserve it differently. I love it.


7 posted on 06/29/2017 7:31:44 PM PDT by tillacum (I'm still a Deplorable.)
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To: tillacum

You actually “saw” him? Let me know how you did that, been wondering what the limerick king looks like.


8 posted on 06/29/2017 8:10:31 PM PDT by Fungi (Mucor roxii is not a rock band.)
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To: doug from upland

First thing that came to my mind!!


9 posted on 06/29/2017 9:05:42 PM PDT by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
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To: tillacum

Fine. How have you been? I’ve been here.


10 posted on 06/29/2017 9:46:17 PM PDT by doug from upland (Mayflower Hotel --- hotel of choice for Dem officials and their hookers)
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To: doug from upland

Doing good.


11 posted on 06/30/2017 6:00:51 AM PDT by tillacum (I'm still a Deplorable.)
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To: Fungi

If you’re talking about doug from upland, I’ve not seen him and wouldn’t know him from anyone else.


12 posted on 06/30/2017 6:30:14 PM PDT by tillacum (I'm still a Deplorable.)
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