Today we celebrate Earth Day in Canada and around the world. Started in 1970 and has continued to grow, it's is a day where we promote, discuss, and share our stories and actions to fight climate change and protect our planet.

This year's theme is “Restore Our Earth” which focuses on emerging green technologies and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems.

One of the new and growing industries that I find fascinating and has both a positive ecological benefits and economic growth opportunities is the cultivation of kelp or seaweed. With a relatively low upfront cost and fast scalability, it is becoming a more viable business opportunity across the world.

In terms of environmental benefits, seaweed helps clean oceans and the air by removing nitrogen and sulphur from the water while also absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. Seaweed cultivation in the open ocean can act as a form of carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change. Added to these benefits are the elimination of pesticide and fertilizer use, as it is not needed, as well as saving farmland space compared to traditional land-based farming.

Seaweed also produces biomethane which can act as an alternative fuel source to fossil fuels.

In Japan alone, the aquaculture crop production amounts to $2bn annually for the production of Nori. Seaweed use is also growing in the food and cosmetic industry as chemicals extracted from seaweed can act as stabilizers for longer shelf life, provide some regenerative benefits through antioxidants, and are an important part of many Asian and vegetarian foods.

Sources:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0957582012001206

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed_farming

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950024/#:~:text=Antimicrobial%20Activity,that%20could%20spoil%20the%20product.