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Comment by 1letterunixname | Hacker News Reader

Wow, this article doesn't deal with reality.

Seaweed farming needs:

- Massive ($10-20e12 USD) investment to make a dent in climate change, in the form of automated kelp processing ships AND genetic modifications/breeding to favor rapid growth. There is no possibility of a few artisanal farmers in skiffs doing anything measurable except selling small batches to $4000/jar cosmetics companies.

- Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

- Sequestration of carbon rather than free use of it in the carbon cycle. Pick a couple of underwater sacrificial deep ocean zones or pump liquified seaweed ash and combustion products underground.

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Seaweed can be quite tasty. It's more that people are simply unfamiliar with the notion that they could be eating it. Even though of course a lot of Japanese and Korean cuisine involves it. I like Korean seaweed soup for example. And lots of people enjoy sushi. And of course the broth in ramen often contains seaweed as well.

I looked into getting my hands on some seaweed to experiment with in the kitchen a while back. Unfortunately my ignorance is a bit of a non starter. We have fantastic Asian stores here in Berlin but deciphering the labels is a challenge for me. Both because I need glasses for the fine print, don't read Korean, and the English/German translations are not that meaningful to me either. I'd say that's the main challenge: ignorance. People simply don't know that they can buy it, where to buy it, what to buy and what recipes they can use it in. A solvable problem but a bit of a hurdle short term.

There are probably plenty of people that like me are curious enough that there is a market for this stuff. I buy food because I eat it, mainly. The whole carbon sequestration topic is a separate one for me.

The texture is quite unpleasant for most people who don't grow up with it, and eating it regularly isn't great for you.

The dried / nori is too dry and fragile to hold up in most dishes.

The rehydrated stuff you'll find in soups or wakame has a fairly novel texture that's good in small doses but I think would struggle to hold up as a substitute for most Western veggies.

That's just to get people to eat it. Then, you have fears over iodine overdosing (thyroid problems) and heavy metal contamination (probably? less of a concern).

It is also high in both potassium and vitamin K, which is hard on people with kidney issues or who are on blood thinners for heart problems.

All in all, I don't see it as being much more than a novel condiment outside of the dishes you already find it in (sushi, wakame, soup).

I don't know, I definitely did not grow up with this and don't find it so offensive. You're maybe projecting your subjective preferences?

As for the health consequences and nutritional value. Loads of Asian people eat this very regularly and live quite long lives. Japan has had some people live very long and breaking age records. Also, it's a generally healthy population as far as I know. Of course add a bit of variety to your diet and don't over do it. Probably good advice for almost any food. I never meant to suggest to replace vegetables with sea weed.

I happen to rather like it, but my wife can't stand the texture.

In any case, I wasn't replying so much to whether or not it can be occasionally enjoyable in the right dishes, but the GP post of

> - Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

in combination with

> - Massive ($10-20e12 USD) investment to make a dent in climate change, in the form of automated kelp processing ships AND genetic modifications/breeding to favor rapid growth. There is no possibility of a few artisanal farmers in skiffs doing anything measurable except selling small batches to $4000/jar cosmetics companies.

I totally agree that more people should try it.

I totally disagree that human consumption is going to sufficiently drive commercial investment to the point of impacting climate change.

I like it wrapped around rice crackers and yup, it's dry and fragile. Tasty tho.

Seaweed contains quite a lot of heavy metals, so its as healthy as farmed salmon - looks nice on paper, but reality is much worse.

Taste is Ok to me (at least wakame), not something I would willingly indulge in daily or in larger amounts but I can see easily why nontrivial amount of people would have issues with it. Good luck trying to persuade small kids, 'ewwww gooooey' and bye.

Maybe to you. Sales would show otherwise.

On the second point, some earlier research[1] suggested that using it as feedstock for cattle may in turn reduce the amount of methane they produce. We apparently feed a lot of stuff to them. I don't know how fussy they are in terms of eaters though.

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-03-18/cows-fed-seaw...

“Enteric methane emissions — emissions produced in the rumen of livestock — are responsible for as much as 14.5 per cent of the annual greenhouse gases produced by human activity.”

Eating seaweed reduces cow methane by 86%. Thus, if every livestock animal on the planet ate seaweed in its diet, we might cut effective GHG output by 10% or so. That’s a huge dent in the problem.

I am not accounting for the CO2 emissions involved in seaweed harvesting.

I think that’s an error — all of agriculture, IIRC, produced about 15% of GHGs. This is not to downplay the impact of bovine burping.

Also note that, as far as methane goes (that’s what the cows burp), anthropogenic emissions are about 40% of the total.

Yes it's an error. The ABC article is misquoting the FAO, which says that all emissions associated with livestock make up 14.5% of human GHG emissions.[0]

This includes not only enteric methane (39% of that), but also emissions and deforestation to grow feed (45%), manure storage (10%), and meat processing and transport (6%).

Reducing global emissions by ~6% is still a huge dent, of course.

[0] https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/

> Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

Hahaha. Not a sushi fan? Asians seem to like seaweed plenty. One way to help on this point would be to popularize (in the west) a snack that's already very popular in Asia: https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OJ-AD212_SEAWEE_FR...

This is one of the best sellers in Thai convenience stores.

For some reason it's not cheap. One box costs about a dollar and doesn't provide enough nutrition to justify purchase. Otherwise it's quite tasty.

I agree with you, personally. Few calories. But in the west right now, this is often seen as a positive (due to obesity). It can be a healthy diet/snack food.

Wouldn't seaweed be a net for all of those toxins & pollutants found at sea? Seafood health claims are always focused on omega 3s and such but rarely mention this aspect.

No. because Seaweed does not eat smaller Seaweeds.

Predator fish like Tuna can become heavier in toxins only because they are the top of a food chain gathering and concentrating said toxins.

Seaweed is just a plant. It grows, then dies if not harvested. It is no higher risk than wheat.

Yeah, South Africa also has those roasted seaweed snacks (when I’ve seen them in Germany, they were always mixed with flour for some reason…), and while they taste awesome, they were around 3€ for 20g, which is insane.

Nori works out to about $30/kg dry weight if you buy it in sushi-chain quantities. Sometimes sushi places will sell you one of the big bags they use if you ask nicely.

I love snacking on seaweed. Especially the sesame oil stuff. So good

> - Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

True, as long as you pretend Asia doesn't exist.

But seriously, what's with the blatant cultural ignorance? If you're exposed to seaweed only later in life it may be off-putting, but for people who grow up with it, it's just another food.

(I am an Asian) Asian eat seaweed with lots of oils or salt. We don't take them as primary food source.

What about Wakame? I love that stuff raw.

I'm part Asian and eat seaweed by itself sometimes (well, it's salted of course).

Of course it's not really a staple food the way rice is, I'm just saying it can be a common side thing.

Funny how they are accusing everyone else of being sinophobic and racist in their other comments.

Climate change hyperbole aside, seaweed farming is pretty hot in the world of agriculture at this moment and the market demand is exceptionally outstripping supply.

> Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

Laver might be the most delicious snack food I can imagine, it's just so difficult buy sustainably in the USA

Kanten is a Japanese processed agar product that is refined to jelly and then sun dried into fiber blocks. It is virtually tasteless but added to soups and salads for texture.

It doesn't have to be monadically appetizing to be a delicious dietary staple.

> Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

Seaweed being unappetizing is learned behavior. It’s eaten across the world and most people wouldn’t find it unappetizing unless told it is.

>Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing.

Can we just agree that there are cultural differences in taste?

Hundreds of millions if not billions of people find seaweed quite appetizing. Such a normative statement is flat out wrong.

It's not because is not appetizing. It just lacks marketing and development

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