alternative markets for kelp and kelp farmers.
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There have been several requests for other uses for algae. One that has not been mentioned is using cheap brown kelp as a building product. One of our ocean colonization groups has this article concerning using seaweed in place of floating cement. https://www.seasteading.org/seabrick/?mc_cid=92a1da088b&mc_eid=556a6be065
In addition, the Marinea Project has other suggestions for alternative profit margins. Free booklet located at https://marinea.org/
@bob_llewellyn, curious, what is the price range is for "cheap" brown kelp? I ask because growing kelp is expensive for many farmers (I'll ignore the cost of drying), and I am trying to wrap my head around what non-food industries are willing to pay for wet or dry biomass. Thanks!
@tiffany_stephens85
The article quotes " SeaBrick is also less expensive than other floating materials at $360 per ton." $360/2000lb = 18 cents per lb. But I think they are being somewhat optimistic. I believe that prices will be somewhere around 25 cents per lb as the market demands pick up. Now that is for that surgomj-what-ever that washes up on the beach. Sea junk. Almost everything else will get a higher price with food grade on top. There is a green algae that can replace every drop of oil pumped from the ground. Home grown diesel. We would need a patch of algae as large as the state of Massachusetts but we can supply the fuel needs of the entire country if we wanted to. We just need to live on our farms instead of living on shore.
@tiffany_stephens85 The way I think about "cheap" non-food uses right now is that they don't make economic sense (for anyone) unless it is in the context of a by-product of some other, higher-value product (food or non-food). Processors have a lot of power (and responsibility!) to valorize the entire kelp crop, from the most pristine Grade A material all the way down to bio-fouled holdfasts scraped off the line. If a processor insists on only pursuing a single product from the highest quality kelp and throws the rest of the biomass away, they will barely have enough margin to cover their own costs, much less pay their farmers a premium. A processor who diversifies their product lines and has a way to use sub-par kelp -- even if at a lower price point -- stands a chance of being able to make enough money to pay its farmers well. Even more so if it's the farmers themselves who own the processing
My favorite example of this principle applied is the Icelandic cod market:
https://www.humanprogress.org/icelandic-ingenuity-turns-12-cod-fillet-into-3500-worth-of-products/
https://www.sjavarklasinn.is/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/A-New-Utilization-Movement-2.pdf
@sam_gar I have to agree with you! My response was a little bit tongue-in-cheek because I feel that I'm starting to see a lot of ideas that expect a cheap product and it doesn't really pencil-out for the farmers right now, at least in Alaska. And my experience is that there is little by-product from kelp processing (and so much seed line tangled in whatever is left on the grow line), or at least not enough to justify another market that needs large quantities of this cheapest leftover kelp (no processors buying kelp product in AK). I've been hearing from new businesses (not owner-operated) that want to start a kelp farm and sell it for 20-40 cents /lb and I get concerned for communities that would be asked to do the work. I agree that we need more processors that are buying product at scale to diversify product lines.
@tiffany_stephens85
The article quotes " SeaBrick is also less expensive than other floating materials at $360 per ton." $360/2000lb = 18 cents per lb. But I think they are being somewhat optimistic. I believe that prices will be somewhere around 25 cents per lb as the market demands pick up. Now that is for that surgomj-what-ever that washes up on the beach. Sea junk. Almost everything else will get a higher price with food grade on top. There is a green algae that can replace every drop of oil pumped from the ground. Home grown diesel. We would need a patch of algae as large as the state of Massachusetts but we can supply the fuel needs of the entire country if we wanted to. We just need to live on our farms instead of living on shore.
@tiffany_stephens85 The way I think about "cheap" non-food uses right now is that they don't make economic sense (for anyone) unless it is in the context of a by-product of some other, higher-value product (food or non-food). Processors have a lot of power (and responsibility!) to valorize the entire kelp crop, from the most pristine Grade A material all the way down to bio-fouled holdfasts scraped off the line. If a processor insists on only pursuing a single product from the highest quality kelp and throws the rest of the biomass away, they will barely have enough margin to cover their own costs, much less pay their farmers a premium. A processor who diversifies their product lines and has a way to use sub-par kelp -- even if at a lower price point -- stands a chance of being able to make enough money to pay its farmers well. Even more so if it's the farmers themselves who own the processing
My favorite example of this principle applied is the Icelandic cod market:
https://www.humanprogress.org/icelandic-ingenuity-turns-12-cod-fillet-into-3500-worth-of-products/
https://www.sjavarklasinn.is/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/A-New-Utilization-Movement-2.pdf
@sam_gar I have to agree with you! My response was a little bit tongue-in-cheek because I feel that I'm starting to see a lot of ideas that expect a cheap product and it doesn't really pencil-out for the farmers right now, at least in Alaska. And my experience is that there is little by-product from kelp processing (and so much seed line tangled in whatever is left on the grow line), or at least not enough to justify another market that needs large quantities of this cheapest leftover kelp (no processors buying kelp product in AK). I've been hearing from new businesses (not owner-operated) that want to start a kelp farm and sell it for 20-40 cents /lb and I get concerned for communities that would be asked to do the work. I agree that we need more processors that are buying product at scale to diversify product lines.