Round Up: Seaweed? Yes, seaweed.

Recently, seaweed has been infiltrating my RSS feeds.

Other than making sure I have furikake to sprinkle on my popcorn, seaweed is not a topic I would normally pay much attention to. However, the number of articles I've seen recently has caught my eye. Does seaweed have implications for our clients, their industries, or their locations?

To help me understand the broad strokes, I used the STEEP framework to investigate the social, technological, economic, environmental (or ecological), and political implications seaweed might have for our clients.

The bottom line: Seaweed is a great example of why it's important to scan broadly. I wasn't expecting such a wide variety of uses, or that it would be so easy to directly relate seaweed to the trends, technologies, and emerging issues our clients follow. Did any of these topics or articles surprise you in the same way?

Social

As people have increasingly made personal and household decisions with the environment in mind, seaweed may be poised to be the next sustainable "superfood", providing plant-based protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and other vitamins and minerals with a low carbon footprint.

• Seaweed proteins could be the next sustainable food source

• Bye, kale: Marine scientists want you to eat more seaweed | Popular Science

Technological

Seaweed is being used to create new hydrogels that preserve historical artifacts, reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the source, and studied in medical testing to improve health outcomes.

• New goo preserves 800-year-old wooden shipwreck samples | Popular Science

• Preventing Parkinson's disease may lie in seaweed antioxidants | ScienceDaily

• The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2024 | World Economic Forum

Economic

While all of the articles I read could have economic implications, this article estimates that the seaweed industry in Europe could be worth €30bn by 2030.

• Tide’s out, dinner’s up: why Wales is at the forefront of a seaweed revolution | Wales holidays | The Guardian

Environmental

From biofuels to greenhouse gases to carbon credits, seaweed is being explored as an answer to many of our environmental concerns.

• Fed Seaweed, Grazing Cattle Produced 40 Percent Less Methane - Yale E360

• Scientists explore seaweed as potential energy and food source

• How I’m turning seaweed into biofuel for cars on Barbados

• Can dumping seaweed on the sea floor cool the planet? Some scientists are skeptical | Science | AAAS

Political

While this category is the least sparsely populated, political topics like food security and global supply chain disruptions are reflected through seaweed. And while the article about Australia's internet cables only showed up because the word seaweed was mentioned in passing, I'm including it as an example of geopolitics having the ability to affect everything.

• US capable of achieving seafood independence, study shows

• Australia is connected to the world by cables no thicker than a garden hose – and at risk from sharks, accidents and sabotage | Internet | The Guardian