The UK botanist who helped revive Japan's seaweed industry | Business

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Each year in southern Japan, dozens of people gather at a seafront shrine to honour a British botanist who never visited the country but is credited with revitalising its crucial seaweed industry. | News24_Business

Kathleen Drew-Baker made groundbreaking discoveries about the reproduction of"nori" seaweed - the crispy dried sheets that encircle sushi rolls - helping kick-start its farming on a commercial scale.

But she carried out her most influential work as an unpaid research fellow, having lost her academic post after marriage because of the university's policy at the time against employing married women.A deep dive into the big business story of the week, as well as expert analysis of markets and trends.Although Drew-Baker died in 1957, her memory lives on in the city of Uto in Kumamoto, one of Japan's largest nori-growing regions.

"Seaweed producers were happy and grateful" for the ability to grow more nori seaweed in the aftermath of the war,"when people were struggling with food shortages," he said.Apart from its use in sushi, it is also a key ingredient in"onigiri" rice balls, a staple snack food in Japan, and is used to garnish bowls of ramen and other classic dishes.In 1949, Drew-Baker published a landmark study in the scientific journal Nature about laver, another name for nori.

Japanese scientists and nori farmers then began experimenting with using oyster shells to help the marine plant thrive.

 

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