Seaweed is a sustainable superfood. Seaweed is the greatest untapped resource on the planet: it's healthy, nutritious and packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. In addition to nori, wakame, dulse and kombu, many more seaweeds are discovered as human food. Seaweed grows fast, purifies sea water and absorbs carbon dioxide.
Seaweed is the most sustainable source of protein and can be eaten fresh, dried or purified to pure proteins. Seaweed is an ingredient for meat replacements, like vegetarian hamburgers. Seaweed has a rich umami flavor, is an excellent binding ingredients and may even taste like bacon. Red seaweeds have vibrant colours and turns brown when cooked.
Seaweed is a great dietary food supplement for adding extra minerals, vitamins and omega-3 to your daily routine. Seaweed contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. This makes seaweed a great natural dietary supplement. Seaweed grows on sea water, light and carbon dioxide. Seaweed generates oxygen and doesn't need freshwater.
Seaweed is a natural, biodegradable ingredient for cosmetics, for texturizing, emulsifying and stabilizing, as well as for its beneficial bio-active compounds. Seaweed and seaweed extracts are anti-aging, anti-oxidizing and antibacterial. Its anti-fungal activity enables substituting chemical preservations. Seaweed provides long-lasting skin hydration, drawing moisture to skin cells.
Seaweed has very beneficial bioactive properties, including antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral and even anticancer properties. This makes seaweed an interesting ingredient for the cosmetic, nutritional supplements and pharmaceutical industries, for skin care, wound dressings, tissue engineering and antiviral, antioxidant, cancer-fighting and immunostimulating agents.
Feeding cattle with Asparagopsis seaweed reduces their methane from burbs and farts with 82%. Is that important? Yes, if cattle were a country, they would rank third in greenhouse gas emissions, almost as much as the US. And even more, feeding cows with seaweed improves their feed conversion efficiency compared to cows not supplemented with seaweed. Win-win!
Seaweedland cultivates seaweed under controlled conditions, in on-land cultivation systems, ensuring consistent quality, consistent supply, food safety and traceability.
Seaweedland partners with solar energy company DSG to bring seaweed cultivation to greenhouses in Sexbierum.
“We want to turn the greenhouses into a sustainable, circular company,” says Maurice Schoenmakers, CEO of DSG, who purchased the former Hartman greenhouses in Sexbierum.
“I dare say that we are the most sustainable company in the Netherlands,” says Schoenmakers. "We can generate sufficient energy sustainably ourselves. That is also a condition of the government, as we strive for 100 percent sustainable energy.”
Seaweedland visited a greenhouse facility in the north of Friesland, close to the Waddenzee, to explore the possibilities to deploy large scale indoor seaweed cultivation in greenhouses. The benefit of seaweed cultivation close to the sea is saline ground water at a constant temperature can be used.
Greenhouses offer the possibility to control the temperature and carbon dioxide levels at their optimal levels for maximum yield and optimal quality. Furthermore, indoor cultivation reduces the risk of contamination by unwanted biological materials and shellfish in the seaweed tanks.
Seaweedland visited Wageningen University & Research, to discuss the possibilities to use bio-refining technologies to create high value products, ingredients and compounds from seaweed. Examples are vitamins, proteins, polysaccharides, hydrocolloids, fatty acids like omega3, fibers for prebiotic, minerals and more. The objective is to create a bio-refining process that uses and valorizes all compounds into valuable products without creating any waste streams. Seaweedland has spoken to Prof. Rene Wijffels and Antoinette Kazbar of the Wageningen University.
Hanzehogeschool Groningen is the University of Applied Science. Seaweedland and Hanzehogeschool Groningen have started a Research & Development project to improve the quality and efficiency of seaweed cultivation by using smart on-land cultivation technologies. During this R&D project, Seaweedland cooperates with professor Rob van Haren, and students and the field of developments in the bio-based economy.
Seaweedland had a pleasant meeting with the government of Bonaire, Mr. Kroon and Mr. Adriaens, to discuss the potential for land based seaweed cultivation on Bonaire. Due to its stable water temperature and clean ocean water, Bonaire is a great place for seaweed cultivation. Seaweed cultivation creates jobs, and economic growth without waste, and helps coral reef conservation since seaweed absorbs carbon dioxide and de-acidifies sea water.
Seaweedland has identified and sourced Ulva seaweed on Bonaire. The seaweed has been brought to our seaweed lab for further analysis. Seaweedland cultivates local seaweeds, customed to local conditions and avoiding introduction of invasive species into precious eco-systems. The seaweed will be tested to determine the optimal cultivation conditions in order to produce the optimal quality with consistent production volumes.
Seaweedland received an 85,000 euro grant from RVO for R&D of its On-Land Seaweed Cultivation Technology. Seaweedland cooperates with Hortimare and Hanzehogeschool Groningen to prove that through land based seaweed cultivation, seaweed can be produced at a higher and more consistent quality and will result in a business model that makes seaweed suitable for use in food, feed and cosmetics.
Seaweedland received a 20,000 euro grant from SNN for conducting a feasibility study for environmentally friendly extraction processes of seaweed, and specifically to study Enzyme Assisted Extraction methods (EAE) of Ulva seaweeds in order to produce high quality Ulvan. Ulvan is a sulphated polysaccharides from Ulva seaweed and exhibits anti-ageing and anti-bacterial activities and is a potential natural ingredients for personal care products.
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