Sea Port is helping lead the way to the next Green Revolution

The land based Green Revolution that was championed by Norman Borlaug in the 1960s is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation by developing robust high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice that when augmented with the application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and modern growing practices enabled the production in the developing countries of Asia to more than double!

I can still remember as a kid in the ‘60s when my parents would say, “Eat all that food on your plate, people in China are starving!” For those of you who also grew up in that era, you most likely heard similar parental chiding and you may have even responded with the same smart-alecky retort I used.  However, now that I am older and hopefully more mature, I am simply astounded how significant the Green Revolution was in the course of modern history.  The terrible scourge of starvation was dramatically reduced.  In addition to this, the resulting increased state of food security enabled the world population to grow quickly from 3 billion in 1960 to the present day 7 billion.

This land based Green Revolution however is far from over and is poised to get some major boosts from a variety new agritech achievements such as super rice varieties.  While this is certainly comforting news as our population expands toward 10 billion by the year 2050, an emerging new type of Green Revolution may become even more significant for humanity going forward:

Seaweed and microalgae aquaculture !

 A host of possible benefits from this new type of Green Revolution based on algae:

·         small area of ocean needed to feed the entire planet

·         reduction of ocean acidification

·         reduced need for feed inputs to grow the seaweed and algae

·         carbon and nitrogen sink attributes

·         providing a protein and omega 3 feed source for finfish and crustacean aquaculture and land livestock

·         providing oils for the creation of biofuels and bioplastics

·         expanding the development of important pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals

Sea Port is constantly anticipating and strategizing in order to both drive and adapt to changes in our dynamic seafood industry.  One way we are driving positive change is by promoting our Seasoned Seaweed Salad.  Please get on board with us and do your part to help make this new Green Revolution become a reality quicker by simply adding seaweed to your seafood choices.

I believe that the arrival of this new Green Revolution will be so profound that a smart-alecky retort like the one I made in my childhood in the ‘60s (“Well, just send it to them then”) will simply never occur in the future because the scourge of starvation will have been totally eliminated due to the multiple benefits stemming from seaweed and microalgae aquaculture.

I would love to hear your comments..............................Sincerely, Dave Glaubke

Man-made climate change: The ultimate threat to sustainable fisheries

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) comprised of Nobel Prize-winning scientists recently reported that ocean warming and acidification due to climate change have the potential to devastate the current productive capacities of our oceans.  Never before has the U.N. put out such a strongly worded warning concerning such risks.

Climate change caused by CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels is the ultimate threat to the long-term sustainability of our fisheries. In light of this IPCC report, it is finally time for the worldwide seafood industry, governments, NGOs and all fossil fuel energy companies to unequivocally acknowledge that this threat is real. All the current efforts to manage fisheries for sustainability will be for naught and seem very narrow-minded if we cannot uniformly acknowledge this fact.

By universally acknowledging the reality of man-made climate change the world will be taking that requisite initial step toward cooperatively solving its associated problems.

Please leave your comments on this often times politically charged issue.  Sincerely, Dave