What if the next food trend wasn’t avocado toast or oat milk, but…seaweed? Yeah, you read that right! That slippery, green stuff washing up on beaches could be the hero we need to fix our food problems and help save the planet. Vincent Doumeizel, Senior Advisor on Oceans at the UN Global Compact, believes it’s time we shift our focus from land to the ocean to solve issues like food scarcity and climate change.
In his talk, “How Deep Are Our Oceans?” Doumeizel delivered some powerful takeaways. First off, we live, as he describes, on a “blue planet,” over 70% of Earth is ocean, but we’re barely using it. Farming seaweed, unlike traditional crops, doesn’t need fresh water, pesticides or fertilisers. It’s just sitting there, waiting to be farmed; and it grows faster than those avocados everyone’s obsessed with! Doumeizel puts it bluntly, “There’s no way we can keep eating the amount of meat we do. Seaweed is the best place to start as a replacement.”
It’s already gaining popularity in places like Japan and Norway, where smart marketing has made seaweed more appealing. In Japan, they’ve turned seaweed into everything - from savoury snacks to seaweed flavoured ice cream and some are even using it to make artwork! Meanwhile, Norway isn’t just eating seaweed, they’re powering the future with it! They’ve tapped into seaweed’s potential to create biofuel, proving it’s not just food, but a green energy source that’s driving sustainability.
But seaweed’s benefits go beyond your plate. It can absorb CO2, restore marine ecosystems and even replace plastic. Yup, seaweed can literally turn into biodegradable packaging. Imagine eating your sushi from a seaweed-based box that won’t end up in a landfill. If we get serious about scaling up seaweed farming, we could unlock all kinds of environmental and food solutions. The next time you’re at a sushi joint, just remember, your meal could be saving the planet!
‘Sea’ the behind the scenes with Vincent Doumeizel on our Instagram @twabeinspired
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