Kelp
It might be better than the fish in the net - Bren Smith
image by: Public Domain
HWN Suggests
Move Over, Kale, The New Super Vegetable Comes From The Sea
Eat Kelp. It's chock-full of nutrients, it mitigates climate change by sequestering carbon, improves oceans by soaking up excess nitrogen and phosphorus, and has potential as a valuable fertilizer and biofuel.
It's also delicious.
Bren Smith, owner of Connecticut-based Thimble Island Oyster Company, and director of the organization Greenwave started growing kelp and shellfish as a reaction to several crises he faced in his own life: overfishing, climate change, and rampant unemployment in the fishing industry. He was working on the Bering Sea when the cod stocks crashed, and he lost oyster crops to both ocean acidification and two hurricanes.
Based in part on…
Articles of Interest
A New Leaf
Seaweed could be a miracle food—if we can figure out how to make it taste good.
Kelp Forests Wired to Track Climate Change
Climate researchers in California have brought their lab under the sea. They've wired kelp forests in Monterey Bay to send real-time data on the coastal ecosystem back to shore.
Kelp Is the New Kale
The global seaweed harvest is worth more than all the world's lemons and limes.
Ocean Greens: The Least Deadliest Catch
In a food world that flips from fad superfood to superfood, an increasingly skeptical public has to ask which miracle crop has the staying power. In order to be called “the next Kale,” a food has to demonstrate not only exceptional nutritional value, but positive environmental and ecological externalities, potential to meet large-scale need, and the ability to create jobs at home.
Seaweed Is A Culinary Win-Win-Win, So Why Aren’t We All Eating It?
It’s healthy, sustainable and increasingly tasty. What’s the catch?
The Next Big Thing Is Seaweed. (You Can Even Get Some That Tastes Like Bacon.)
Like the tide creeping in, so slowly that you hardly notice it, the idea of seaweed as a food seems to be taking hold among some corners of the food universe, particularly with those concerned about the environment.
Watch Your Back, Kale. Kelp Is Gunning For The Veggie Du Jour Title
The story of how kale went from frumpy to trendy is a great inspiration to Gabriela Bradt, a fisheries specialist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. "Nobody cared about kale. Then it became the green du jour," says Bradt. With a little help, Bradt says seaweeds like Knotted Wrack and Horsetail Kelp that grow along the Maine and New Hampshire coasts could make the same ascension, and earn a regular spot on restaurant menus and dinner tables.

