It is easier to pump oil from the bottom of the ocean than to farm seaweed, according to French oceans advisor Vincent Doumeizel.
Doumeizel, from Burgundy in France, is a senior advisor on the oceans to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, a non-binding pact encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies.
He is also director of the food programme at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation independent charity and author of “The Seaweed Revolution”, published last year, with illustrations by his daughter Neige.
He says that difficulties in obtaining licenses for seaweed farming are international, and yet the development of seaweed farming is vital to address the needs of the globe’s growing population – and contribute to carbon capture as part of climate breakdown initiatives.
“Seaweed is the healthiest food you can get on the planet”
“I had been working in the food industry for 20 years and began to realise the planet could not feed its growing population, with one billion people starving and an additional 250,000 people to feed daily,” he says.
“For the next 50 years, we are going to have to produce as much food as we ever produced as human beings over the last 10,000 years,” he continues.
“How can we do that? It won’t be possible on land. We have to look to the oceans, which cover 70 per cent of the planet but only contribute to two per cent of our food and calorie supply,” he says.
“Seaweed is the healthiest food you can get on the planet,” Doumeizel said in an interview for Wavelengths.
His book, The Seaweed Revolution, translated by Charlotte Coombe, is published by Legend Press.
