Super seaweed: From food to pharmaceuticals, how the marine plant can transform our lives. The #WeeklyTradecast dives into the benefits and potential of seaweed with UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) lawyer David Vivas Eugui. Climate change is affecting harvests around the globe. But seaweed is one of the few food crops that have a positive effect on the environment. It’s also high in protein, making it a promising substitute for meat and an even more sustainable alternative than soya. Seaweed also has potential in pharmaceuticals and as a substitute for some plastics, reducing the use of fossil fuels that are a main cause of climate change. To find out more, listen in to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s David Vivas Eugui for how this versatile plant could transform many parts of our lives. https://ow.ly/U3Mr50SvmoY
Transcript
Seaweed is becoming a new natural wonder. It has been there from prehistorical times, but it has become very fashionable. Recently, there is a significant change in trend. Hello, This is the weekly Trade Cast podcast brought to you by UNCTAD, the US trade and development body. I'm Sarah Toms. We're exploring how major events are shaping trade and development and how that affects billions of people around the world. This week, we're diving into the benefits and potential of seaweed. Climate change is affecting harvests around the globe, but seaweed is one of the few food crops that has a positive effect on the environment. As seaweed grows, it absorbs nutrients and carbon dioxide, helping to improve water quality and buffer the effects of ocean acidification. It's also high in protein. That makes seaweed a potential substitute for meat and an even more sustainable alternative than soya, as it does not rely on scarce farmland or fresh water. Seaweed also has potential in pharmaceuticals and as a substitute for some plastics, reducing the use of fossil fuels that are a main cause of climate change. Well, David Vivas joins us now for more on this versatile plant and how it could transform many parts of our lives. David is a legal officer at UNCTAD working in trade, environment, climate change and sustainable development. He is so committed to protecting the environment that he's converted his entire home to solar energy. And he joins us now to tell us more about this superfood. So David, did I actually miss anything out? Why is seaweed? Been a such a potential positive for people and the planet. No, you didn't miss anything out. I think seaweed is becoming a new natural wonder. It has been there from prehistorical times, have been consumed by human for long time. But he has become very fashionable recently. There is a significant change in trend still with this a type of macroalgae. You find it in three main group of species, brown, red and green. And now the beauty of seaweed. Is that it is very versatile. It can be used in many different type of activities needed for humans. It can be used for food, It can be used for producing medicine, for cosmetics and as a food ingredient. It can be used to produce biofuels, paper, cardboard. It can also be used as a fertilizer. So we have a wonderful source of biomass that we then think of. It's becoming very abundant as a consequence of climate change. And also the excess of use of fertilizers that go to the oceans through rivers. So we have an opportunity to harness these type of marine plants for sustainable development. It's interesting to consider that against seaweed was always there as a small ingredient for food, but in the last two decades, the trade and production of seaweed has triple is one of the few green sectors. That is growing so fast. And I said you have said yourself is one of the activities that have the lowest environmental impact. Again when you cultivate seaweed, you don't use fresh water, you don't use land, you don't use fertilizers, it absorbs carbon, it's absorbs nitrous, it create jobs for small communities particular for women. So there are many positive aspects of seaweed cultivation and you find it in two ways in C2IN cost and exit 2IN aquaculture and also that both act type of activities. Offer very important opportunities for development both in developed and developing countries. Wow, It certainly is a superfood. Now where are the opportunities to actually bring the benefits of seaweed to consumers? Absolutely. This is perhaps what have driven the change. Consumers again has been consumed mainly in Asia for thousands of years, but now it has gone beyond the frontier. Food initially was for soup. As a condiment or it was also used to do sushi as we all know seaweed salad love it exactly. But now again, it has becoming a source for many industrial products and it's a totally new frontier. And and the consumer is more inclined now to buy products that are plant based, but also they're organic and also they are biodegradable. And if they have a low ecological footprint even better. So all this is accumulating a favorable take by consumer. So if you add to that the new diverse set of products that are being coming as a consequence of innovation, you have a situation of huge market expansion. So we have again significant opportunities. Just to tell you the numbers, the market for seaweed today is 17 billion and the trade in person exports is more than two billion. So it is becoming very, very important economic activity. In any scalable industrial level, it has been initially mainly driven by artisanal small scale, but it's becoming very industrial. So it is an emerging sector. It's a sunrise sector, but again, there are very few sunrise sectors that are also sustainable. Well, obviously the potential seems vast from what you've said, but how practical is its use, for instance, in medical applications or as a substitute for plastic? No, it's again. And you have a weather, pharmaceutical or biotechnology development. Biodiversity is always a first element to get inputs and sourcing ideas. You know, especially when linked to traditional knowledge. Now seaweed have many particular properties depending on the seaweed. Again there is a huge variety of them. But seaweed can have antioxidant properties, can have anti-inflammatory properties, antivirus, anti cancer, anti hyperintensive fat lowering. Neuroprotective so it can have many different uses that can end whether in nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals are even in cosmetics because as antioxidants are very nice for skin and most of the seaweeds are not toxic for humans, they are part of the biodiversity we are interacting. Fish also eat it and many other speech unknown plastic substitutes is Again, we're looking for products that can be biodegradable, products that do not pollute in the long term, that can dissolve or disintegrate in nature and be absorbed by. Ecosystems O where the innovation is coming is that seewis is becoming a very important replacing for forests or timber biomass O it's being used for aer cardboard packaging. This is interesting transparent organic searches for sauces or for liquids that also have antibacterial properties. It can also be used for coating of food packaging. So many of the items we use today especially for food delivery. Backwashing logistics can be substituted by biodegradable materials made from seaweed and the beauty is it reduce pollution from plastics because you substitute one for the other but also you reduce the forestation because you are taking the biomass from the sea and not from the forest. So a double benefit. Well, if seaweed is so good, why aren't we using it more, making the most of it, and what are the barriers and challenges? I think again, this is an emerging sector, so they will be increasing use of seaweed now, which are the downsides of it? There is one in terms of production, which is particularly linked to cultivation. You can have cultivation in situ and then aquaculture exit. If you do in situ, one of the effects of cultivation is that you may run into. More monoculture type of activities and that has effects inland or on the sea. What happens when you have monoculture? Well, you may be absorbing also a lot of oxygen, reducing oxygen in ecosystems but you also you may this balance generate an unbalance in the ecosystem. You may be favoring some fish pieces, but you may be be detrimental to other fish species. So if you do then a monoculture industrial way without analyzing on having better understanding on the impact of ecosystem and not taking mitigation. Actions you may also generate damage level. You can also do exit with cultivation but the best approach is to do the multi trophic aquaculture which means close circuits where you can have fish shrimp but also see with mollusk. So you have different species cooperating and getting different eggs outs you know and use them whether for fed you know for the same fish and shrimp through the seaweed but also getting less pay frankly excrements of the fish and the shrimp to be used as fertilizer. For the seaweed, so there is no waste in the cycle. There are also elements about social aspects that we need to consider that when the ocean is becoming a new frontier for a number of economic activities. So there is a competition by coastal communities on using the ocean space. So I think states need to increase what is called ocean space planning, which is defining the areas where each group or activity can be taken and ensure that there is no competition on over utilization. Or deterioration of ecosystems. So you need a definition of what the spaces will be needed and and also to regulate the sector. Now what needs to happen and who needs to be involved to really make the most of seaweed in a sustainable way? David, I think the beauty of seaweed is that you may have the activity being driven by small scale communities. It is interesting that there is a significant growth of startup and small businesses in seaweed. There is a 40% growth annually globally. So it's a sector where many people is entering, but it also has an interesting social aspect. About also 40% of those startups are led by women and most of the ones that are engaged in cultivation are also women. And why is that? Because Sigrid has started in many communities as a complementary economic activity by families. While men may be doing fishing and working on cargo at port, women engage in the seaweed cultivation and the sea with processing and uses also for food security reasons. So he has a very important social component that we can. Not underestimate, there are many things we need to do. I think we need to encourage Gormans to incorporate seaweed into national development, Lans, agrobiodiversity, LANS climate change mitigation plans. So it's it's a sector that is invisible to the government right now because it's small, but it's growing so fast that can become an important one in very few decades. Second, I think we need to expand the research and development in several aspects of the seaweed related to carbon sequestration, bio security, food security. A sustainable uses etcetera. I think we need to advocate for the harmonization of standards. We don't have any standards in seaweed, so it's a very unregulated sector. So we need to start regulating development standards and harmonizing those standards. Finally, we need to enable this small scale ventures engaging in seaweed because they are very important for livelihoods. We need to facilitate training and ventures, provide access to credit, protect the life and the security of. Women and men engaged in the activity because they're aquatic activity. And finally, we need to encourage the research and development of all these multiple uses in both developed and developing countries for cosmetics, pharmaceutical, nose plastics, because those tend to have a higher price markup than food. So can enable the emergence of sunrise industries, can create jobs and can allow coastal communities to have alternative livelihood sources. That's really interesting, David. Thank you so much. That was Unctad's, David. Davis, he was this week's guest. Tune into the weekly trade cast next week and every week for more insights on the most pressing issues around the world of trade and development. And there's even more on our website, unctad.org. I'm Sarah Thompson, Geneva, goodbye for now.To view or add a comment, sign in