The seaweed solution

Seaweed is a type of algae, often referred to as a macroalgae due to its comparatively large size. An important part of the marine ecosystem, it grows in many coastal regions. While the gathering of seaweed as food dates back as far as the Neolithic period, commercial seaweed cultivation really began in Japan in the 1670s. The modern seaweed era started in the 1940s and 1950s, with the farming of nori, again in Japan. Nori is well known to many people as the thin sheets used to wrap sushi.

Unlike most other farmed crops, seaweed does not require any inputs other than carbon dioxide and sun. To help protect seaweed in its natural habitat, it makes sense for farming to meet harvesting needs, leaving the naturally growing variety undisturbed. Today, the global seaweed industry is worth US$13 billion (A$18 billion/NZ$20 billion) a year. About 98 per cent of production occurs in the Southeast Asia and East Asia regions, with the top producer being China, followed by Indonesia.

Seaweed cultivation is expanding in various part of the world. It represents the fastest-growing area of food production, expanding at an estimated 12 per cent a year, of which most is for food. Among the many new seaweed projects