{"id":88774,"date":"2023-02-03T02:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=88774"},"modified":"2023-02-01T20:20:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T19:20:43","slug":"farming-more-seaweed-for-food-feed-and-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/environment\/farming-more-seaweed-for-food-feed-and-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Farming more seaweed for food, feed and fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A University of Queensland-led study has shown that expanding global seaweed farming could go a long way to addressing the planet\u2019s food security, biodiversity loss and climate change challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD Candidate Scott Spillias<\/a>, from UQ\u2019s School of Earth and Environmental Science<\/a>, said seaweed offered a sustainable alternative to land-based agricultural expansion to meet the world\u2019s growing need for food and materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeaweed has great commercial and environmental potential as a nutritious food and a building block for commercial products including animal feed, plastics, fibres, diesel and ethanol,\u201d Mr Spillias said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur study found that expanding seaweed farming could help reduce demand for terrestrial crops and reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by up to 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2<\/sub>-equivalent per year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers mapped the potential of farming more of the 34 commercially important seaweed species using the Global Biosphere Management Model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They estimated the environmental benefits of a range of scenarios based on land-use changes, GHG emissions, water and fertiliser use, and projected changes in species presence by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn one scenario where we substituted 10 per cent of human diets globally with seaweed products, the development of 110 million hectares of land for farming could be prevented,\u201d Mr Spillias said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also identified millions of available hectares of ocean within global exclusive economic zones* (EEZs), where farming could be developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe largest share of suitable ocean was in the Indonesian EEZ, where up to 114 million hectares is estimated to be suitable for seaweed farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Australian EEZ also shows great potential and species diversity, with at least 22 commercially viable species and an estimated 75 million hectares of ocean being suitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Spillias said many native species of seaweed in Australian waters had not yet been studied from a commercial production perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way I like to look at this is to think about ancestral versions of everyday crops \u2013 like corn and wheat \u2013 which were uninspiring, weedy things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough thousands of years of breeding we have developed the staple crops that underpin modern societies and seaweed could very well hold similar potential in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UQ study collaborator Professor Eve McDonald-Madden<\/a> said the seaweed solution would have to be carried out with care, to avoid displacing problems from the land to the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur study points out what could be done to address some of the mounting problems of global sustainability facing us, but it can\u2019t be implemented without exercising extreme caution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n