Values Driven
We are unique in our commitement to health and the planet.
Our Vision
We create innovative and transformative seaweed ingredients that maximize end user value and product development while supporting local communities, sequestering carbon, remediating ocean acidification, feeding a growing world population, and enhancing human/animal health.
The Sun is Our Partrner. Using solar energy to dry our seaweed and save our planet.
We use sunshine to to dry our seaweed. Solar drying produces the highest quality seaweed by preserving the highest level of nutrients. No fossil fuels required.
After solar drying, we then vacuum pack it so it is shelf stable for years at ambient temperature. By using the sun, we minimize our carbon gas emisions, and maximize quality.
Our leading competitors freeze their seaweed or are using large industrial dryers. Some both blanch and freeze their seaweed. Often frozen seaweed is then thawed to produce a finished product that is then re-frozen. A double hit to our planet (not to mention quality).
These energy intensive practices generate large amounts of greenhouse gases-- often for years. This is simply irresponsible in our opinion.
We are USDA Organic because it matters.
Eating farmed organic seaweed assures that you are getting the best seaweed for you and the planet!
Farmed seaweed is sustainable and regenerative. It cleans our oceans, remediates carbon and nitrogen, fighting global warming and ocean acidification, and leaves our endangered wild seaweed beds and habitat undisturbed.
Organic seaweed is traceable from seed to plate and assures your seaweed was grown in pristine waters.
We are certified organic from nursery to finished product. It matters.
Farming smart: maximize yields, minimize plastic gear in the water.
Our farms utilze innovative best proctices to produce yields over 4 times that of industry norms.
This means we grow the same amount of seaweed as our competitors utilizing only 25% of the gear. This means less synthetic ropes and plastic buoys in the water-- so less micro plastics in the ocean, less ghost gear, and less risk of marine mammal entanglements.
We believe many of our competitors are merely replicating the mistakes of industrial agriculture in the ocean. Monocultures, intensive farms utilizing miles of ropes and thousands of styrofoam and plastic buoys, large boats burning fossil fuels. Yoiu don't save the planet growing seaweed by filling the ocean with plastics and burning fossil fuels to grow, harvest, process, and store your seaweed.
We are committed to sustainable, ethical, and principled aquaculture. We "talk the talk," and "walk the walk."
We are the Real Deal. Woman and minority owned. Industry experience. Values driven.
Our competitors make a lot of claims. Often without substance.
Our company is woman and minority owned and managed from day one.
Our team is a creator and driver of seaweed aquaculture in North America. Unmatched in the industry experience: thirty years of food industry and seafood experience, combined with over ten years of seaweed farming experience from the very first kelp farm in North America to leading the industry today.
Our leading competitors have virtually no seaweed aquaculture experience. One is run by a former diplomat, another by a lawyer, and another by an investment banker. All funded by investors that are looking to cash in on the seaweed wave of popularity.
We are here for the long run. Committed to improving our planet, our communties, our soils, and human and animal health. Staying real.
Safety first. No hype, transparent.
We produce over five varieties of seaweed, including kelp.
The FDA considers brown seaweeds like kelp Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) so long as it is utilize as a spice, seasoning, or flavoring. So it is an ingredient, and must be included in foods and utilzed wisely.
The FDA allows kelp be used as an iodine supplement so long as it does not increase the end product's total iodine in excess of 225 micrograms for adults- lower for kids.
This is how we sell our seaweed and urge caution to anyone utilizing kelps, such as sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) in other ways, such as in burgers, meatballs, slaws, salads, noodles, smoothies, and other food preperations.
High iodine levels in kelp can put those with thyroid issues at risk, as well as interact with those taking antithyroid medications, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, potassium-sparing diuretics, and other medications. We urge you to contact your health provider if you plan to eat high iodine kelps.
We believe everyone can benefit from the micronutrients in seaweed, if used appropriately.
Seaweed is not an island. We use our resources year round.
Many seaweed farms are seasonal. This is not just bad business, it reflects a disregard for our natural resources and the needs of our communities.
We utilize our farms year round with multiple species, incuding green sea urchins. This means our leases are used to their full potential and assures an economic contribution to our community.
Seasonal seaweed farms means seasonal income with year round expenses. We believe aquaculture can provide a living wage and opportunity to build a sustainable business, provide employee benefits like health insurance, and send our kids to college.
Seasonal seaweed farms permit a system similar to industrial chicken farming to take hold. The farmers take the risks, are subject to "take it or leave it" pricing, and are denied access to the table when it comes to profits and market access.
We support small scale farmers that can use their aquaculture leases to earn money year round while contributeing to a vital working waterfront community.
We are artisinal growers that reject giant freezers and industrial dryers.
We are committed to hand harvesting in small batches to be solar dried. This produces the highest quality seaweed, maximizes nutrient value, and eliminates biofouling and pests.
Since we farm year round we can harvest at the peak of seaweed quality. Many of our competitors need to harvest by a certain date, so they have litte control over quality. They also have to stabilize their entire harvest until they have time to process it into saleable products. This usually means freezing. The freezing process makes the seaweed loose over 10% of its water soluble nutrients. It also breaks down the cell walls of the seaweed reducing quality further.
Buying hand harvested, solar dried seaweed, is the healthy choice.
© Springtide Seaweed, LLC 2020-24