Greenwave: Seaweed and the Future of Food

As part of the World Economic Forum Pioneers for Our Planet series, Bren Smith, founder of GreenWave, discusses the tremendous power of scalable climate solutions in the form of underwater farming. On his seaweed farms, Bren grows kelp, oysters, mussels and scallops. This is “zero input” farming, requiring no land, no freshwater, no fertilizer, no feed. The farms offer a sustainable source of affordable, high protein calories, while also absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and making ocean waters less acidic. 


It’s also a critical piece of what Bren calls “the emerging climate economy.” Farming less than 5 percent of U.S. waters could create as much as 50 million new jobs, sequester 135 metric tons of carbon and reduce methane output from cattle by over 58 percent (World Bank report.)