Seaweed farming in North America is a thing thanks to Cascadia Seaweed
Made in Vancouver is a collaboration between Vancity and Daily Hive. Together, we’re turning the spotlight onto local businesses, organizations, and individuals who are helping to create a healthy local economy.
Seaweed farms are a thing? You bet.
We wanted to learn more about ocean cultivated seaweed, so we sat down with Erin Bremner-Mitchell from Cascadia Seaweed based in Sidney, BC.
Vancity has been supporting people in our communities since 1946, like local entrepreneurs. As part of our Made in Vancouver series spotlighting local businesses, we talked to Cascadia Seaweed about their climate-positive farming. Learn more about what Vancity is doing in your community at vancity.com
In 2019, chairman Bill Collins was researching foreign direct investment opportunities for Vancouver Island and one of the business cases he was researching was in sustainable aquaculture.
After an hour on the phone with one of Canada’s leading experts in seaweed, Collins learned that the leafy green of the sea is a climate-positive crop with a variety of uses requiring only the sea and sunlight to grow.
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He also learned that ocean cultivated seaweed requires no fresh water, fertilizers, pesticides or arable land to grow. It utilizes nutrients from the sea, sequesters more carbon than land plants, mitigates acidification, creates habitat, is renewable and is fast-growing.
“It is the definition of regenerative aquaculture and this new and burgeoning sector directly supports the development of Canada’s growing Blue Economy,” Bremner-Mitchell explained to Daily Hive.
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Collins wondered why no one was cultivating seaweed at a large scale in British Columbia which led him to start Cascadia Seaweed — named after the bio-region that we are located in.
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Collins expanded his Cascadia Seaweed idea by bringing on other maritime professionals who also believed in building a profitable and scalable business that enhances the natural environment and provides economic opportunity for rural and coastal communities.
The seaweed company currently works with Indigenous partners as well as an amazing team and will be launching their seaweed products under the brand Kove Ocean Foods this fall.
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Those interested in tasting the farmed seaweed products will be able to at select retail locations in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.
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