Limu kohu is most traditionally intended for smallpox, but the distinctive taste of seaweed is now increasingly in demand for cattle to increase the quantity methane they bulge into the atmosphere.
Parker Ranch cattle are among the first of Hawai’i’s livestock to be fed red algae. In previous trials, the seaweed was found to reduce the amount of methane the animals belched by an average of 77 percent, according to Kona-based business Symbrosia.
The algae’s ability to mitigate cattle’s greenhouse gas emissions has elevated Symbrosia and Blue Ocean Barns, another limu kohu farm in Kona, into the growing international seaweed farming industry.
Fueled by its range of potential applications and climate change mitigation properties, the World Bank predicts the industry could be worth nearly $12 billion by 2030. And it’s attracting tremendous public and private investment interest around the world, including in Hawai’i.
The federal government has awarded Symbrosia more than $2.2 million in grants this year, including a $1.2 million organic market development grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture late last month.
This catalytic funding will increase the production of the five-year-old operation by 1,600 percent, said Symbrosia CEO Alexia Akbay. This means just over 6,000 cattle can eat Seagraze, the red algae product, as part of their diet. The cap is currently 250 cattle.
With a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, awarded in January, he plans to streamline his currently labor-intensive production process, one that involves three stages of fine machining and drying.
Blue Ocean Barns closed with two major mainland dairies, as well as ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, raising $20 million. Last year, Symbrosia closed with Organic Valley, the country’s largest farmers’ cooperative, and Danone, the country’s largest yogurt producer.
The recent injection is “really the next step for us to start expanding commercially for our products, both for local growers like Parker Ranch and then some larger companies like Organic Valley,” Akbay said.
But the company doesn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, given the growing conditions and Hawaii’s unique climate. Symbrosia is expanding its footprint from a quarter acre to 15 hectares and wants to increase its staff by 70 jobs, Akbay said.
This is partly due to the year-round growing climate for the seaweed farm.
“We’re probably harvesting a little bit more often, sending product out more often, just because the seaweed grows so fast,” Akbay said.
But now the race is on to commercialize and scale the product around the world, given how high demand could be in the future, says Jim Wyban, who developed pathogen-free shrimp that supports the global shrimp industry.
David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023
Going global
Major dairy and beef producers worldwide have taken serious interest in methane-reducing seaweed since researchers in Australia discovered its potential. The country’s first commercial harvest was in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Global Methane Pledge, with 155 signatory nations, specifically targets livestock because they contribute the bulk of agriculture’s emissions. And agriculture accounts for 37 percent of the world’s total methane emitted by humans.
A single cow produces between 154 to 264 pounds of methane per year. The US, which has a 20 percent share of the international beef industry, has a cattle population of over 87 million.
“They’re looking for a very big problem,” Wyban, a leader in Hawaii’s aquaculture industry, said of the seaweed companies.
The global market for seaweed-based animal feed supplements could be worth $1.1 billion by 2030, according to the World Bank.
There has been local interest beyond Parker Ranch, Hawai’i Cattlemen’s Council managing director Nicole Galase said. But many farmers want to see results first, Galase said.
Symbrosia’s research with Parker Ranch is expected to last another nine months. The red seaweed was associated with faster weight gain in cattlemore milk production, and even faster wool production in sheep.
“We want this research and ingenuity to come up because we do want options. Farmers are always looking for a way to improve,” Galase said. “It takes research, it takes people trying things.”
But having a locally grown and produced product isn’t going to keep livestock in Hawai’i, where much of the cattle are shipped to the mainland. The number of cattle shipped to the U.S. mainland is largely determined by how much grass Hawai’i has at any given time, a factor largely determined by drought, Galase said.
A valuable crop
There are several other algae-based markets, including construction materials, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs, bioplastics, biofuels and materials.
Each represents an opportunity for greater environmental and economic sustainability, said Todd Low of the state Department of Agriculture.
“There are three types of value for seaweed: There are the ecosystem services, the filtration of water and benefits for the environment. There is carbon sequestration, … then there is this value-added processing,” Low said.
Algae already ranks behind cattle as Hawai’i’s fifth most valuable agricultural crop. It was worth $45 million in 2022. Hawaii’s entire aquaculture sector is expected to reach $600 million by 2034, according to the Department of Agriculture.
“There’s a whole world of different value-added things,” Low said. “For us, the focus on macroalgae or seaweed is the vehicle in that world.”
State lawmakers have recently expressed interest in aquaculture, though Hawaii has largely ignored fish and algae farming in the past, favoring land-based farming instead. Little has been realized from legislation introduced in recent years.
But algae continued to grow as an industry, with little help.
What Symbrosia and Blue Ocean Barns have shown is that Hawai’i can compete in the aquaculture space, Low said.
“Hawaii Grown” is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change is supported by the Environmental Funders Group of the Hawaii Community Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
