Ag Alert November 4, 2026

Seaweed Continued from Page 1

the seaweed, becoming the first California shellfish company known to do so. Fleener said if restaurants put seaweed on their menus and educate consumers about it, they can help increase demand for the marine plant as a food ingredient in California. Seaweed farming in the United States remains in its infancy but has grown in re- cent years. In 2015, there were just a hand- ful of kelp farms along the Atlantic and Pa- cific coastlines, according to a 2026 report by the aquaculture nonprofit GreenWave. There are now around 250 permitted sea- weed farms across the U.S. and Canada, amounting to more than 6,000 acres. Kendall Barbery, GreenWave’s director of partnerships and industry engagement, said her company worked with Cal Poly, Humboldt, to open the state’s first com- mercial, open-water seaweed farm in 2020. She sees it as part of the growing interest in seaweed as a California crop. “Over the past decade, we’ve come a long way,” she said. “We’re at the point where we have achieved some serious scale and abil- ity to produce and demonstrate viability as a new industry across the U.S.” The industry’s growth faces barriers in California. No new aquaculture leases have been issued in state waters for more than three decades, GreenWave reported. Barbery said a big obstacle for would-be seaweed growers is California’s arduous permitting process. State environmental regulations, which have been in place for decades to protect the state’s coastline, weren’t created with seaweed farming projects in mind. Those regulations can make obtaining the necessary permits complicated and costly. Kaira Wallace, the regulatory and engagement lead for the aquaculture

“People aren’t eating huge volumes of giant kelp across the U.S.,” Wallace said. She said Ocean Rainforest’s California operations focus primarily on producing seaweed-based agricultural biostimulants, products that support plant growth and soil health. Seaweed-based biostimulants are al- ready sold to farmers, she added, so get- ting into that market would not be difficult. Ocean Rainforest produces and sells three biostimulant products made with wild-har- vested California seaweed and farmed sea- weed from Maine and the Faroe Islands. Fleener said Hog Island is working with a University of California, Santa Barbara, researcher interested in devel- oping seaweed-based biostimulants for strawberry growers. He said there’s interest in how seaweed farming could help California ecosystems thrive, noting that seaweed can sequester carbon, provide habitat for marine life and filter water by absorbing excess nutrients, among other perks. “A lot of our food systems tend to have the net effect of really simplifying the eco- systems where they’re taking place: We take out diversity, and we put in efficiency,” he said. “We really need food systems that are co-producing ecosystem health.” Manola Secaira is a staff writer for Ag Alert. She can be reached at msecaira@cfbf.com. Different types of seaweed, left, grow naturally on Hog Island Oyster Co.’s equipment throughout the year. Above, Gary Fleener holds nori, left, and sea lettuce. The company harvests both kinds of seaweed during warmer months and when tides are low.

company Ocean Rainforest, said regula- tory hurdles can prevent a small or me- dium-sized business from getting into seaweed farming. “There’s not an established clear path- way with a defined timeline and a known cost associated with it,” she said. Wallace said Ocean Rainforest, which is headquartered in the Faroe Islands with operations in California, became familiar with the state’s tricky permitting landscape when it launched an 86-acre demonstra- tion farm growing giant kelp in federal wa- ters offshore of Santa Barbara. The farm operated for two years as a research site. Wallace described the demonstration farm as a critical steppingstone that helped pave the way for a larger commercial oper- ation, for which the company announced receiving permits in early October. The new, 2,000-acre site is located in feder- al waters offshore of Ventura County, an area identified by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as one of 10 potentially suitable places around South- ern California for commercial aquaculture. Wallace said the project’s approval was made easier because it is based in federal perform geological surveys using drones. Kramer is supported by his parents, Dan- iel and Nancy Kramer, and FFA advisers Derek Silva, Jordan Albiani, Patrick Mac- Donald, Caitlin Holder, Anaely Marquez and Sarah Ronayne. • Derek Rulon of the Cottonwood-West Valley FFA for wildlife production and management—entrepreneurship/place- ment. Rulon volunteered at a local wildlife center to gain experience in helping build bird enclosures and duck boxes, and as- sisted with the rehabilitation of wildlife. He plans to earn a degree in animal sci- ence before attending veterinary school to focus on wildlife medicine. Rulon is supported by his parents, Khristopher and Crystal Rulon, and FFA advisers Terra Gib- son, Eric Poldervaarrt, Kayla Bowerman and Laura Gonzales. Meanwhile, Hanford FFA was one of three chapters that won the #SpeakAg Showcase competition. Each participat- ing chapter submitted a 1-2 minute video about what makes agriculture unique in their region, state or local area. They were judged on creativity, agriculture knowl- edge and state representation.

waters, and NOAA had already vetted the site. The project could help clarify the reg- ulatory process for other seaweed growers looking to enter the industry, she added. “If we do well with the project, I have no doubts that we’ll see other people starting to consider some of the other aquaculture opportunity areas,” Wallace said. Barbery said California’s adoption of the Statewide Marine Aquaculture Action Plan in June is another step toward clari- fying the permitting process for seaweed and other marine aquaculture operations. The plan calls for the development of an aquaculture pilot program “to lower bar- riers to entry and promote innovation in marine aquaculture.” Hog Island Oyster Co. has refined its harvesting process in the years since get- ting its permit. Nowadays, most harvests occur during the spring and summer. After washing and drying the seaweed, some of it is shared with researchers, with the rest used to create food products such as miso nori butter. “It’s delicious. We put it on grilled oys- ters, but it’s also really good on a slice of toast,” Zajon, the quality assurance man- ager, said. “We’ve also made cookies with nori in it before.” Although seaweed is often associated with food, most growers say culinary uses are unlikely to become the primary market for California-grown seaweed.

FFA Continued from Page 14

Albiani, Sarah Ronayne, Cheryl Reece and Patrick MacDonald. • Jackson Alves of the Hamilton City-Hamilton FFA for diversified crop production—placement. Alves worked on his family’s 2,000-acre farm in the pro- duction of rice, hay, olive, almond, corn and wheat. Through this experience, he learned about successful agriculture busi- ness practices, operating large equipment, analyzing crop health and determining ir- rigation cycles, and made plans to become a rice farm manager in the future. Alves is supported by his parents, Rich and Amy Alves, and by FFA advisers Ashley Thorpe, Janice Lohse and Andrew Martin. • Elliott Kramer of the Galt FFA for envi- ronmental science and natural resources management—entrepreneurship/place- ment. He worked in a placement position with Kramer Reclamation and Mining, a family business that conducts land recla- mation for habitat and wildlife restoration. During his employment, he contributed to the completion of the restoration of a 44-acre riparian habitat and learned to

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16 Ag Alert November 4, 2026