Zulema Muñoz collects seaweed in a small coastal town 100 miles south of Santiago, Chile. A photo published by Inter Press Service shows her emerging from the water with a green bag tied at her waist, two large seaweed plants trailing behind her like Medusa’s mane. A good week may see her cut 1100 pounds (just under 500 kilograms) of seaweed from the rocks where it grows, reported.
Muñoz is one of the 30,000 people for whom Chile’s seaweed industry provides a livelihood. Throughout Latin America, the cultivation and collection of seaweed is gaining a foothold both as a source of food and as a means of bolstering food security in a region where are food insecure and poverty affects of the rural population, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela have all explored seaweed production for food. Yet as demand outpaces production and wild stocks have become depleted, more attention is being paid to sustainable cultivation and harvesting methods that can keep the industry afloat.
Seaweed has a long history in South American cuisine, one that predates colonisation. The indigenous cooking of Chile made frequent use of protein-rich , the most abundant of the country’s 750 species of seaweed. Today, is commonly found in place of meat in , a traditional stew, as well as salads, empanadas, and ceviches.
Today, what’s old is new again. Call it a “re-enchantment with algae,” as Axel Manríquez, head chef at the Plaza San Francisco Hotel in Santiago, told IPS — and South America’s best chefs are also some of kelp’s best boosters.
Collecting seaweed at Pichilemu, Chile. Source: Flickr
Like Muñoz, chef Rodolfo Guzman hunts Chile’s shoreline for seaweed — in addition to sea figs, beach chard, sea parsley, rock clovers, and sea asparagus — for his award-winning Santiago restaurant, Borago. Working closely with biologists, anthropologists, and mushroom specialists, he developed a menu of haute Chilean cuisine based on these indigenous marine plants. Sound like a famous restaurant in Copenhagen? In neighboring Bolivia, Claus Meyer, the other half of the team behind Noma, opened the restaurant with a similar goal. Showcasing the region’s native produce, Gusto serves alpaca, llama, and river trout with cochayuyo.
taste of the sea
The many sides of seagreens
Kelp as the new kale is a global trend too, and for good reason. Nutritionally, seaweed is packed with iodine and other nutrients, and its umami-heavy flavor appears on trend-making menus - for example, in Google’s New York cafeteria.
“It’s a kelp tsunami,” Bren Smith, kelp crusader, . “I was expecting 10 years to get people to eat this weird, disgusting stuff.”
While 83 per cent of cultivated sea vegetables are produced for human consumption, we aren’t just eating it. Seaweed is used in fertilisers and animal feed, and seaweed-based food additives are likely in many products in your kitchen and bathroom right now. , made from red seaweed, is in everything from shampoo and toothpaste to ice cream and vegan hot dogs. For years, scientists have been talking about its potential as a biofuel.
While seaweed grows readily, there isn’t an infinite supply — and there are concerns that humans are taking too much of the wild stuff. “It is possible that overexploitation of natural seaweed resources could lead to significant ecological, economic, and social consequences at local, regional, and even global scales,” a global team of scientists wrote in the . In Latin American countries like Brazil and Peru, where the seaweed industry is based on harvesting wild seaweed rather than cultivated, the authors called the need for environmentally friendly models “urgent.”
On this front, Chile has been a leader in sustainability in South America not only for the seaweed stock but also for the food security of its residents. The Chilean government passed a law to promote re-population of natural seaweed beds. By providing compensation to small seaweed collectors, the government promotes seaweed cultivation and provides livelihoods.
Continuing to develop sustainable seaweed models like Chile’s throughout Latin America could increase food security and the quality of life for women like Muñoz. Take Tanzania: There, of seaweed farmers are women, and the industry has There’s a domino effect: Across the globe, when women gain economic independence, childhood malnutrition goes down, and education goes up.
It’s like Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said at last year's FAO conference: “Women hold the keys to food security.” For some, that key is kelp.
