While the oceans cover more than 70% of our planet, only 2% of food production (including all fisheries and ocean farms) comes from the sea. In the future, there will be increased pressure on global oceans to produce food. Much of this will come from ocean farms producing not only fish, but shellfish, seaweeds, and other marine foods. In this series of podcasts, we look at how the Nordics are innovating and leveraging the oceans as a source of food.

Seaweed Solutions

Jon Funderud the CEO of Seaweed Solutions. Since 2009, they have been a pioneer in building up Europe’s seaweed production, collaborating with players across the value chain to set up and establish growing and cultivation. Seaweed is an incredible raw material. Regenerative, sustainable, and versatile seaweed is being used for animal feeds, food ingredients, bio-fuels, bio-plastics, and pharmaceuticals. It is estimated that the seaweed market will grow to 9.3 billion euro by 2030, 30% of which could be captured by Europe. This episode is a crash course on seaweed’s potential. We dive into what’s unfolding in Norway and beyond and why seaweed is such a big deal. See details here.

OceanHarvest

Regenerative ocean farming has been identified as a key solution to climate change. It’s the practice of growing seaweed along with several kinds of shellfish like oysters and mussels not just to feed people, but also to heal the oceans. HavHøst or OceanHarvest is an NGO helping communities throughout the Nordics get set up with toolkits to grow, harvest, and eat from the sea without harming nature or existing underwater ecosystems. In this episode, Joachim Hjerl shares how a crazy idea of growing 20 oysters in Copenhagen’s central harbor became a movement of blue community gardens. See full show notes here. 

Iceland Ocean Cluster

Iceland is known for having some of the most productive fisheries in the world. Some even call it the Silicon Valley of white fish. In this episode, Thor Sigfusson, the Founder of The Iceland Ocean Cluster, dives into why Iceland is a leader in seafood processing technology, the innovative ways they are using 100% of a fish, and what the fishing ship of tomorrow will look like. Thor is also the author of The New Fish Wave: How To Ignite the Seafood Industry. See more here.

Hatch Accelerator

Aquaculture is the farming of fish. As the fastest growing sector in animal food production, the industry has started to attract the interest of Silicon Valley. This might also be because aquaculture is some 20 years behind traditional agriculture in terms of development leaving it ripe for innovation. Carsten Krome is the Managing Partner of Hatch, the first global aquaculture accelerator program operating across Norway, Hawaii, and Singapore. Carsten is also an investor with  Alimentos Ventures. He provides an excellent introduction to the aquaculture world and what we can look forward to in this space. Find full show notes here.