A commercial operation known as Monterey Bay Seaweeds is one of the largest producing farms of its kind and leads a new type of sustainable farming.It's a delivery day at San Francisco seafood restaurant Aphotic. Chef Peter Hemsley includes locally supplied seaweed in a Michelin-rated menu, built on responsibly sourced ingredients.
But the journey to the restaurant table actually begins several hours south of San Francisco in the coastal town of Moss Landing. "And so it's a relatively simple system, you know. You pump water in offshore, you run it through some tanks, you use natural sunlight, and you perpetuate seaweed to the point where it oversupplies itself, and we're able to harvest it and put it into the commercial market," said Graham.
"And you know, the state of California, and rightly so, has a pretty rigid regulatory when new things go in the water. And so, once we start getting those applications through and getting some pipes in and locations that aren't going to do environmental damage, you're going to start seeing these types of systems show up. And I think what you're going to find then is that the environmental benefit of the farm clearly outweighs any environmental negatives," Graham said.