Full of vitamins, fiber, minerals and protein, CO2-negative, super-fast growing and available in huge quantities. The opportunities for seaweed are great. Especially if grown on land. Seaweedland is optimizing the process, with support from NOM.
Everyone eats seaweed on a regular basis. Ice cream, chocolate milk, sausage rolls, sushi, sauces, puddings and many other products contain seaweed, as an additive or thickener. Seaweed is also in toothpaste, cosmetics, dietary supplements and even medicines. But much more is possible with the plants. For example, seaweed is a promising meat substitute.
Sexbierum
Sven Rusticus has known this for several years. The entrepreneur was so taken by the benefits of seaweed that he decided to get serious about producing it, but in a clean, responsible way where the quality is constant and consistent. Together with friend and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Anko Kuil, Rusticus made a plan that should lead to sustainable seaweed production in greenhouses in Sexbierum.
Growing seaweed on land. That sounds rather contradictory. And yet that is the best way to bring the promise of the plant to fruition, Rusticus says. 'In quite a few places in the world, seaweed is 'just' grown and harvested at sea. For various purposes that is a fine method, but not for what we want: using seaweed for human food.'
Rusticus was taken by the special properties of seaweed a few years ago. His first idea was also to start farming in the sea, until he saw the drawbacks. 'You can never provide a constant and consistent supply because you have to deal with different seasons, weather conditions, temperatures and more. But the biggest barrier of all is that seaweed from the sea always contains shellfish. And those contain allergens that some people can't stand.'
You can solve that problem by growing the seaweed under controlled, constant conditions. On land, that is. In a greenhouse, if it is up to Seaweedland. There you can build basins in which optimal conditions are created for the growth of seaweed. Rusticus and Kuil are already experimenting with this in Heerhugowaard. In the foreseeable future, they want to expand to a greenhouse complex in Sexbierum.
There, a large greenhouse complex stands empty. Rusticus: "Part of the greenhouses will be used to generate solar energy from which we can get renewable electricity. The location is ideal. Deep underground is a spring with very pure, salty water. That is the perfect base for the water the startup wants to use for cultivation, supplemented with nutrients.
That's how far Seaweedland's ambition extends. The creators think that makes sense. In their eyes, seaweed is an indispensable link in the transition to a more sustainable world and thus saving the planet. Do the math: growing seaweed is CO2-negative. You can harvest 22 times more protein from an acre of seaweed than from an acre of soy. Moreover, you only need salt water for it and not fresh water like for other crops and especially for animal protein. And so there are many other favorable conditions.
12,000 species of seaweed
'Research on seaweed continues apace, but there is still a long way to go,' says Rusticus. 'Some 12,000 species exist in the world, we only use a few of them and new benefits are being discovered all the time. For example, the species Asparagopsis has been proven to be an effective means of bringing down methane gases from cows. You add a little to their feed and the cows burp out significantly less methane.'
Seaweedland believes the Netherlands has the opportunity to become a world leader in sustainable seaweed production. Rusticus: 'We can have serious impact. Seaweed is a means to feed the world in a sustainable way.'
That nutrition is what the company focuses on for that reason, initially with three types of seaweed. Seaweedland is doing this to make the world more sustainable, but also to promote human health. After all, seaweed contains large amounts of minerals, fiber, protein and vitamins. Of particular interest is the presence of vitamin B12, which the human body needs as it eats less meat. As a salt substitute, seaweed also works for health because seaweed contains less sodium and more magnesium and potassium. And as a natural thickener, it is also more sustainable than gelatin derived from animals.
'That's what we're about, to feed the world sustainably. But we are also working on other products with seaweed, such as cosmetics and food supplements. Seaweed has antibacterial and antiviral properties. It is anti-inflammatory, contains antioxidants and has anti-aging properties for the skin. On specific products with those properties, we can achieve a higher margin and improve our operation. By the way, did you know that seaweed is also the basis of ocean and coral friendly sunscreen? Just another opportunity.'
NOM for initial phase
Seaweedland has only been on the road for two years and is hard at work discovering and mapping all the possibilities and properties. The test facility in Heerhugowaard is an important step in that process. The company's location reads: Leeuwarden. And that is not for nothing. Rusticus: 'Leeuwarden is the epicenter of water technology. We want to be in the middle of that. Apart from that, agriculture is big in the Northern Netherlands and the networks are good. We need those.'
The NOM is helping, says investment manager Ruud van Dijk. 'Seaweedland is a company at the beginning of what could become something very beautiful. Everyone sees the great opportunities, but in such an initial phase it is difficult to attract investment money. That is what we are there for. We are now putting money into the test setup that precedes scaling up to a location such as Sexbierum. We need another round of funding for that. And if the tests are positive, I'm sure we'll be open to that again.'
Rusticus hopes so, too. His biggest challenge now - besides figuring out which seaweeds thrive best in different conditions - is to open up the market. 'The benefits of seaweed are obvious. It also tastes good, and that is what we now have to convince people of. One way we do that is by using chefs to create delicious dishes with our products. The first trials are promising in that respect. Seaweed is the future. We already know that, now it's time for more people to see that.'