Emerging U.S. Seaweed Sector: Does San Francisco Bay Area Have a Role?
If you are tuned into the Blue Economy, or the climate issue more broadly, you have probably heard about seaweed as a nature-based solution. Seaweed has been cultivated and used as a food stock for centuries, but a new cadre of climate-focused start-ups are using seaweed as a more environmental-friendly replacement to traditional materials. In response, seaweed farming in non-traditional markets, like the U.S. and Europe, is increasing.
States such as Maine and Alaska support seaweed farming in part because it is an alternative income opportunity for its fishermen who have been hard hit by declining seafood sectors. The nascent U.S. seaweed sector includes farms, wild-harvesters and companies that use seaweed biomass to produce new products; this latter category of companies is right at home in the SF Bay Area, which is known for innovation and disruption.
san francisco seaweed sector companies
Several San Francisco Bay Area companies are working with seaweed and making all kinds of products–from products destined for human consumption, through products designed for industrial use. In the foods sector, seaweed was initially harvested locally along the California coast and dried for food applications, but now a group of companies are extracting proteins and essential vitamins and minerals to make new foods and snacks: Umaro Foods (Berkeley) creates bacon that uses protein extracted from red seaweeds grown in tropical waters; Rootless (San Francisco) uses a proprietary blend of multiple seaweed species to produce a “daily bite” nutritional supplement full of essential vitamins and minerals that support women’s health.
While most people immediately associate seaweed with food products, several companies are harnessing seaweed’s physical properties to create biomaterials that can replace harmful fossil fuel or use of chemicals in everyday products. Sway (San Leandro) is a leader in the production of biopolymer resin that is home compostable and 100% derived from renewable sources, including seaweed. Packaging companies are using Sway’s materials to replace single-use plastics or plastic-alternatives, such as corn, that are not as sustainable as ocean harvested seaweed. Carbonwave (Boston; Cataño, Puerto Rico; Puerto Morelos, México) transforms a variety of seaweed (Sargassum) that has become a nuisance in Mexico and the Caribbean into cosmetic and biostimulant products.
Blue Evolution (Los Altos) is another company utilizing different varieties of seaweed to create biomaterials. The company has started to “biomine” seaweed to extract critical minerals which are absorbed by the plants from the ocean. Macro Oceans, based near Sacramento, created a bioactive material with superior hydration properties for cosmetic products.
The work of these companies and others is critical to the growth of a U.S. seaweed sector. It represents the efforts of nature-based solutions working to address climate crisis challenges. The fact that most of these companies started, and are located in, the SF Bay Area is no surprise. Hopefully each will remain part of the foundation that attracts, and supports, many more companies in the future.
author: mike blakeley
Mike is co-founder of Seagreen Insights, a non-profit focused on raising awareness of seaweed as an industrial biomass. Early in his career, he founded a seafood company that exported frozen seafood globally.
For SF Blue Tech, Mike writes and shared thoughts about climate solutions and remediation using seaweed, plus its potential as a low-carbon alternative for biomaterials, food products and industrial ingredients.