One-year Anniversary of a San Diego Sea Farm dream!
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Hello all!
It was one year ago, today, during the Greenwave Course on starting a kelp farm, when I posted a mighty klaxon call to all in the San Diego, CA area that wanted to start a kelp farm.
From that post, I had the great fortune of connecting with amazing people that had the same passion and vision for California kelp and seaweed:
Charli Seyler, Danielle Buard, Terry Ellison, and Frank Buncom IV, who founded Salt and Earth Farms.
Together, we created Ola Farms https://www.olafarms.org/. Over the course of 2023, we made connections with dozens of individuals and organizations across California to get the real opportunity to grow seaweed and shellfish in San Diego Bay for bioremediation! This monumental step is the next toward our ultimate vision of creating more seaweed and kelp farms by utilizing knowledge and technology and dedication to not only protect, conserve, and restore California ocean environments, but produce the food and other products for a more sustainable future!
Diving into 2024, we at Ola Farms want to continue to make connections and do what we can to foster the kelp farming community, just as the community has provided for us. I want to thank Greenwave, and everyone in this community, for the inspiration and motivation to pursue this challenging, sometimes daunting, and, ultimately, worthwhile cause upon the briny depths!
Sincerely,
Nam Nguyen
@charli_seyler, @danielle_buard , @terrence_ellison , and @frank_buncomiv
@nam_nguyen Hi! Thanks for sharing! I'm just starting to research the steps for actually starting a farm after reading Eat Like A Fish. I'm also based in CA. In the Ocean Farming Hub, when I look at the requirements for starting a farm in CA it seems like the getting started is pretty daunting and prohibitive given the cost of the permitting process. The Hub estimates costs ranging from $100,000-$600,000. It didn't seem like it gets much better up the coast in OR/WA either. Wondering if you could shed some light on your experience with permitting.
Thanks!
Max Bracey
@nam_nguyen thanks for sharing! Congrats to the Ola Farms team!
@nam_nguyen This is the best! Thanks for sharing. It was great to connect with Ola Farms during the California Seaweed Festival this past November. Keep up the good work!
@nam_nguyen Congrats Nam and the Ola Farms team! So wonderful to learn about your collaboration and hear that it started through the How to Start a Kelp Farm course! Thanks for sharing with us -- made our day!