Who Farms Matters

This season, GreenWave launched new programming to address persistent industry bottlenecks that challenge seasoned farmers in three regions poised for scale: the Kodiak and Cordova regions of Alaska and Casco Bay, Maine. The program aims to develop targeted interventions that empower seed producers, farmers, and processors to coordinate, collaborate, and pool resources—enabling them to scale their operations while laying the foundation for resilient local ocean farming industries.

In addition to warming waters, pollution, and disease, a surge of overharvesting of wild kelp is threatening local ecosystems and livelihoods due to increasing global demand for kelp. In response to this crisis, Argentina-based grassroots marine conservation organization Por el Mar is working to safeguard these forests and find ways for the region to get ahead of the climate curve. Por el Mar is championing regenerative ocean farming as a sustainable alternative to wild harvesting while providing artisanal fishermen in the area with new economic opportunities.

Last month, GreenWave’s Infrastructure, Market Development, and Training and Support teams joined forces to deliver two in-person workshops in Kodiak, Alaska. These opportunities are designed to bring the network together, facilitate peer-to-peer learning, and generate cross-regional collaboration around advanced technical topics. This year, we covered new harvesting, processing, and stabilization infrastructure and technologies—elements critical to scaling the regenerative ocean farming industry.

Affordable, local kelp processing is critical to scaling the regenerative ocean farming industry. With a short harvesting window and an even shorter shelf life, raw kelp needs to be quickly processed and stabilized before it begins to deteriorate. That short window, coupled with the fact that most farmers lack access to local commercial processing facilities, impacts their ability to bring their crops to market.

Climate change is fueling warming waters and unpredictable extreme weather that directly impacts the livelihoods of lobstermen, fishermen, and shellfish farmers up and down the East Coast. Today, family fishing businesses like Hart Hatchery in New York are turning to kelp to preserve their maritime livelihoods for generations to come.