Better for people, better for the planet: Getting by with a little kelp
By Erica Cirino, Safina Center Outreach and Media Coordinator
Dan Barber, David Barber, Sean Barrett, Paul Greenberg and Carl Safina walk into Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a culinarily gem of the Hudson Valley, for dinner one night several years ago….
No, this is not the set up for a food joke, but rather marks the beginning of a culinary story: It was there at this dinner with three fellow fishermen, according to Barrett, that the first seeds for a new ecological, cultural, culinary and health campaign were planted in his mind. Following that memorable Blue Hill dinner, Barrett began to grow a new culinary campaign, EAT MORE KELP, which is centered around the single, simple premise that we should all incorporate more seaweed in our diets.
In recent years, scientists have called for people to adopt diets that are increasingly plant-based. One part of that push is Barrett’s EAT MORE KELP campaign, which purports a myriad of human and planetary benefits of a seaweed-rich diet for people. The campaign also fits into the larger rise in popularity of vegetarian and vegetable-based alternatives—such as Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat, and fishless fish—to eating animals and addresses the growing awareness of the need to adopt diets richer in plants.
Barrett, who also works with Dock to Dish, said that at the dinner Barber, a pioneer of the sustainability centric farm-to-table movement, had prepared “a hyper-local and ‘place-based’ dining extravaganza.” Barber, Barrett, Safina and Greenberg proceeded to consume two-dozen courses of sustainable Montauk seafood. All fish, shellfish, and plants sourced for the dinner were not your typical fish dishes: Instead of more popularly eaten top-predator ocean dwellers like swordfish and tuna, the species Barber had prepared were low in the ocean food web—including creatures like blue-green algae, butterfish, mullet, scup, oysters and Jonah crab—and responsibly sourced from community fishermen Barber knew through Barrett’s Dock to Dish program.
Jonah Crab. Photo: USFWS
It’s well known that eating more abundant, less-overfished wild fish and shellfish, especially when caught locally, is almost always less taxing on the oceans. Yet still at one point in the evening, the fishermen began chewing over the fact that the world is becoming increasingly inhospitable to all life, particularly that which dwells in the oceans. At one point, Barrett recalled, Safina mentioned that the single change people could make to instantly improve all of these human-caused issues—climate change, overfishing, species extinction, animal cruelty, and more—would be to convert to a local plant-based diet.
It wouldn’t immediately eliminate all suffering on Earth, Safina explained, but the plant based diet can be seen as an “almost silver bullet solution. Perfection isn’t possible, but improvement isn’t hard.”
As if on cue, Barber’s brother David Barber, who is also a culinary leader, joined the group, and served the others a specially prepared vegetable course. Following that conversation, and having had a taste of what vegetables can taste like if they’re cooked with care, it was clear to Barrett that the future of food was plants—and more specifically ocean plants.
Having worked with Bren Smith and his band of ocean farmers at GreenWave, who construct small, “regenerative” vertical kelp-and-shellfish farms in coastal waters, Barrett was also aware that ocean plants are capable of cleaning seawater and sequester significant amounts of climate-warming carbon. Additionally, kelp helps balance the acidity of ocean water, requires no input of pesticides, can improve the health of coastal ecosystems, is relatively simple and quick to grow, and is nutritious for people to eat. In fact, human and our ancestors have been known to eat kelp since ancient times. Today, aside from the logistics of coordinating placement of kelp farms with coastal stakeholders, there really are no foreseeable downsides.
Kelp. Photo: Aitoff (pixabay)
“EAT MORE KELP is the chapter in the Dock to Dish story where we finally decided to graduate from being ‘sustainable’ to becoming ‘regenerative,’” Barrett says. "For the next chapter with Eat More Kelp, our goal is to help change the trajectory of culinary culture across the world, and create the most regenerative system of sourcing food from the sea that is humanly possible.”
There is a limited amount of arable soil left for farming on land, and the numerous issues with industrial agriculture—from pollution to global warming to animal abuse to deforestation and more—have been made clear in recent decades. This poses a problem for a world in need of more plants, but Barrett says GreenWave has already demonstrated how small-scale ocean agriculture can fill a growing demand for sustainable foods capable of restoring planetary and human health. And while kelp species are not immune to the effects of climate change, kelp is a highly adaptable plant that can immediately improve ocean conditions to be more favorable to supporting other kinds of creatures wherever it is planted—unlike many terrestrial crops.
“Of course even as fruits and vegetables add valuable vitamins and fiber to human diets, their cultivation can cause a major debit from the environment, especially when it comes to the use of fresh water,” said Greenberg. “Fresh water aquifers have been dangerously drained in the fruit and vegetable growing regions of the Western states. What makes kelp a great advantage is that these marine ‘vegetables’ are grown in sea water thus eliminating the need for tapping aquifers.”
Barrett is now working with Smith at GreenWave to encourage Americans to not only to add kelp to their diets, but to also consider starting their own kelp farms. He is also recruiting individuals who have dedicated their lives to protecting the oceans to become EAT MORE KELP Ambassadors. These ambassadors have been spreading the campaign far and wide over the Internet, even as Covid has kept everyone at home.
“Everyone can improve their intake of kelp and ‘climate cuisine’ and right now at this moment domestically grown carbon-capture kelp products from Maine and Alaska are coming to stores and online shops at blinding speed,” said Barrett. "To drive this campaign forward, we are encouraging everyone to start eating more kelp right now by supporting fledgling companies like Akua Kelp Company, Barnacle Kelp & Seaweed Company, Blue Evolution and Atlantic Sea Farms.”
This spring, The Crop Project, an agricultural processing and wholesale company bringing regenerative crops like kelp to the marketplace, is set to purchase a large amount of kelp grown by small-scale ocean farmers from around the northeastern U.S.
Eat More Kelp ambassador and Stony Brook University marine biologist Mike Doall showcasing “astonishing growth rates” at Long Island’s first-ever kelp farm. Photo courtesy: Eat More Kelp
“The door to resiliency is regenerative practices, and the key is small farms,” says Casey Emmett, The Crop Project Founder. A big challenge, Emmett points out, is that early, local or regional supply chains—like that which will supply kelp to restaurants and people across America—require a lot of tending and attention in order to scale in a sustainable way. “We’ve worked closely with GreenWave, market partners, and regulators over the past year to build a scalable plan for stabilizing the crop in such a way that a) the product is safe b) the farmers are rewarded and c) the kelp can be used in a variety of channels, including food,” said Emmett.
While raw kelp and foods containing kelp can presently be purchased online and in stores, if you live near a coastline, you might soon see a kelp farm near you. At least Barrett, who lives in New York, expects to see them, as 17 new kelp farms are planned to come online this year in his home state. These farmers are working in partnership with GreenWave, which this year will provide training in regenerative ocean farming to thousands of new ocean farmers across all of North America.
While he is now primarily focused on kelp, Barrett continues to develop the Dock to Dish program into one of the most effective sourcing system for all seafood in the U.S.—forming alliances with local fishers to deliver fresh, sustainable, traceable seafood to communities across New York State.
If you need any convincing to eat more kelp, Greenberg, who once ate an entirely ocean-based diet to write his book The Omega Principle, had this advice to offer: “Aside from environmental benefits which are huge, switching to a plant-based diet also seems to be correlated to better health. Lower blood pressure, lower LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol, lower BMI, and decreased instances of inflammation-related diseases all seem to result from going plant based.”