SEAWEED FARMING REQUIRES NO FERTILIZERS, FOREST CLEARING, WATER IRRIGATION, OR HEAVY USE OF FUEL-BURNING MACHINERY - AND, AS A RESULT, HAS A NEGATIVE CARBON FOOTPRINT.
Expanding seaweed aquaculture can help produce renewable biofuels and food for livestock while absorbing carbon and reducing ocean acidification. Using 3% of the ocean for seaweed could offset 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
"SEAWEED COULD SAVE THE OCEANS FROM BECOMING TOO ACIDIC." - Tim Flannery
"One study asserted that Seaweed farming could produce enough biomethane to replace all of today’s needs in fossil fuel energy, while removing roughly 100% of annual green house gas emissions."
In Bren Smith’s 3-D ocean farms “seaweed, mussels and scallops hang from floating ropes. Oysters grow in cages below... and cages of clams hang beneath them... [the] Kelp soaks up five times as much carbon as land-based plants while oysters filter 50 gallons of water a day.... [these farms can produce] 30 times more biofuel than soybeans and five times more biofuel than corn – without polluting the food chain.”