Why Japan’s seaweed might be the new supercrop to fight global warming
- From carbon absorption to reducing methane emissions from cattle, research into new applications for the marine plant is flourishing
- Overseas interest in kelp has also grown quickly, but experts warned there is plenty of hype around seaweed and cautioned about the ‘need to apply a bit of common sense’
Research into new applications for the marine plant – from carbon absorption to reducing methane emissions from cattle – is flourishing, and countries are looking to Asia’s seaweed savvy to develop their own industries.
Most of the kelp harvested by Kigawa and his colleagues at their port in Yokohama is sold to be boiled in soup stock and added to healthy salads.
But some will go to projects run by the organisation Sachiumi Heroes “to preserve the ecosystem and tackle global warming”, said the group’s founder, Tatsunori Tomimoto.
“The Japanese have a history of eating seaweed, but we haven’t ever really thought of farming it from an environmental or ecological point of view,” he said.
That is now changing, and Sachiumi Heroes is one of several new initiatives in Japan, from fisheries selling “blue carbon” credits to efforts to restore wild seaweed forests.