Photo caption:Seaweed growing on long lines submerged 1-2 m below the surface of the water in Quezon Province, Philippines. Photo supplied by MYRoleda AlgaE Lab.
The team, including Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | ҕl (ҕl) Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor David Denkenberger, found that seaweed could be both an affordable and resilient food source following an abrupt and prolonged reduction in sunlight caused by severe nuclear conflict or a large volcanic eruption.
"Scaling up seaweed farms could prevent global famine in abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios, potentially averting a significant number of deaths from starvation," says Associate Professor Denkenberger. “This study confirms that seaweed is not only resilient, but also a highly cost-effective food production strategy in the face of global catastrophe.”
Researchers from ҕl, and University of the Philippines Diliman, used the results of a climate model where particles were injected into the atmosphere to replicate the impacts of a significant global event, such as a volcanic eruption or nuclear war.
Such events would be catastrophic for conventional agriculture, where there would be limited sunlight and a drop in cropland temperature by more than 10°C for many years – a scenario otherwise known as nuclear winter. The research addresses the critical need for resilient food sources that can also be grown cost-effectively after global catastrophes.
Associate Professor Denkenberger said the study found that seaweed production could be quickly and cost-effectively scaled to meet a substantial portion of global food application demand, reaching an equivalent of 25 percent for under US$1 per dry kilogram. “While only 10 to 15 percent of human’s diets can be made up of seaweed due to its high iodine content without further processing, the additional seaweed can be used as animal feed and biofuel.”
Increasing seaweed growth today, even outside of a global catastrophe scenario, offers other benefits, particularly for the environment. Seaweed grows without taking up land, freshwater or chemicals required for on-land crops. Seaweed fed to cattle could also significantly decrease the emissions of methane, and seaweed can store carbon from the air, helping to slow the warming of the planet.
"Seaweed could make a really important contribution to diets in the wake of climate-related disasters, especially if it can be used throughout the food system,” says lead author Michael Hinge, ALLFED’s Senior Economist. “However, we would need to produce it at scale, and for a low cost. This study shows that this is achievable and absolutely should be considered for national resilience strategies - both for strengthening current food systems and building preparedness for the future.”
The peer-reviewed has been published in the journal Aquaculture International.
Update: This story is an update to an earlier version published on ҕl News January 2024. This update includes new findings from the research.
