
How an Army of Ocean Farmers Are Starting an Economic Revolution - DiabloD3
https://medium.com/invironment/an-army-of-ocean-farmers-on-the-frontlines-of-the-blue-green-economic-revolution-d5ae171285a3
======
rukuu_001
Aqua-farming shellfish is the closest thing to free protein we're going to
get.

My folks are involved with farming mussels in New Zealand. The farms are in a
river mouth, putting the nitrogen and phosphate runoff from farms to good use.
The phytoplankton they eat is replenished 500m down-current from the mussels.

There's one major risk - the 'spat' \- the baby mussels used to start a
vertical mussel line - are harvested when they're washed up on a beach.
Sometimes, there's no spat and no one knows why. The concern is that climate
change will result in less, or no spat, and then no more mussel aquaculture.

~~~
bradleyjg
My biggest concern is that along with the nitrogen and phosphate runoff come
pesticides and other less savory compounds that then bio-accumulate in the
farmed shellfish.

~~~
foxhop
I live in Connecticut, Long Island sound is like my back yard, the waters are
green from too much Nitrogen which blooms algae.

All plants need Nitrogen to grow, there is a surplus for various reasons in
the sound, that surplus needs to come down and this idea is great.

I'm curious whats worse, pesticides directly applied, or the possibility of
pesticides in run off?

~~~
bradleyjg
It depends on whether or not they bioaccumulate^W -- checking wikipedia
apparently the word I want is biomagnification.

The basic idea is that as you move up the food chain the concentration of
toxins gets higher. So a plant might have a relatively low level of toxin
absorbed even if it was directly applied, but a shellfish that consumed algae
that were exposed to the toxin downstream from the farm might have a
considerably higher level.

I don't know a whole lot about the details in this specific case, but that's
my concern.

------
reqctomaniac
We need open source resources on how to build and maintain farms like this.
Unfortunately these guys are not sharing yet, at least I couldn't find any
detailed information. I'd love to try this myself, but as a complete novice
i'd need a lot basic information - like what species to grow, how to get seeds
and plant them, etc.

~~~
alexc05
> but by open-sourcing our farming model so that anybody with 20 acres and a
> boat and $30,000 can start his or her own farm.

It sounds like they are open sourcing their information.

Further, they're offering 2 years consulting and 5 years buying nearly the
full crop at triple the market rate.

Maybe you could reach out. It sounds like they want the help.

~~~
sleepychu
What happens in 5 years?

~~~
nextweek2
Usually it's a renegotiation based on the current market rate.

The 5 years is to cover capital investments. Banks would see those 5 years as
low risk.

------
mwc
> Imagine being a chef in 2015 and discovering that there are thousands of
> vegetable species you’ve never cooked with. It’s like discovering corn,
> arugula, tomatoes, and lettuce for the first time.

This struck me as particularly interesting. Corn, arugula, tomatoes and
lettuce are all a product of selective breeding. To what extent has this been
applied to "sea vegetables" and what might the possibilities look like?

~~~
jstsch
The Dutch company Hortimare is working at exactly this.

------
Smaug123
I was a little worried by the following quote:

> New farms are being built in polluted areas like Bridgeport and the Bronx
> River in order to soak up the nitrogen and carbon, pull out heavy metals,
> and re-build reefs.

They're pulling out the heavy metals. Where do those heavy metals go? Into the
food? I limit my intake of certain foods because of their heavy metal
contents; do I have to do the same for their seaweeds?

~~~
icefo
He says that just after your quote: "Instead of harvesting food, these farms
harvest ecosystem services." That means they don't sell the production

~~~
meric
Hmm, they could if it's to make ethanol!

~~~
goda90
I wonder if it'd require extra processing to make sure heavy metals aren't
left in the ethanol or if the typical production methods already leave that
stuff out.

~~~
bradleyjg
Distillation should have no problem dealing with heavy metals. Other nasty
things though are azeotropic with either water or ethanol and would have to be
accounted for if you wanted to make drinkable vodka. Contaminants are less of
a concern if you are looking to make fuel rather than booze.

~~~
13of40
I recall seeing some early biofuel powered busses that smelled like
frenchfries because they used recycled deep fryer oil. I don't know how
popular they'd be if they smelled like Bronx clam.

~~~
stcredzero
I operated an old Mercedes on biodiesel for a number of years. The cheapest
biodiesel was sourced from animal slaughter waste.

------
seabrookmx
I'd imagine there would be some impact on the native ecosystem. You can't
prevent the seed from escaping the aquafarm and (potentially invasive) oysters
and kelps growing where they normally would not, displacing local species.

That said.. the small footprint of these farms means you could probably
localize this impact, or pick areas that are at a lower risk for farming.

Potentially the biggest hurdle here would be regulatory issues to prevent the
above issues from happening without stifling the industry.

Super interesting subject.

~~~
jacobolus
If there are many thousands of edible sea plants, maybe plants and shellfish
local to the region could be used.

Seems like you could potentially find places where the farms would do more
good than harm, even ignoring the food production aspect: They claimed that
the farms make good habitats for various types of marine life, serve as
effective storm breaks, etc. I wonder if they might even be able to improve
local ocean chemistry in some cases (absorbing fertilizer runoff, stabilizing
pH, etc.).

It will take significant practical experience and study to tease out all the
effects and figure out the most sustainable techniques. At any rate, it’s
likely better than most of the existing fish farms in the ocean. How are those
currently regulated?

~~~
jmknoll
The author begins to address one of your questions in the article, although I
would like to see this subject treated in a little bit more depth.

"Even the best land-based farms pollute, sending nitrogen into our waterways,
so we use our kelp to capture that nitrogen, turn it into liquid fertilizers,
and send it back to organic farmers to grow their wonderful vegetables. When
the nitrogen then runs back into Long Island Sound, we capture it again."

It seems like, at least in theory, these types of farms can also help limit
the damage caused by land-based human activity to coastal ecosystems.

~~~
samstave
What does the kelp grow on? Ropes? Or does it need to grow up from the sea
bed?

------
ChuckMcM
I felt the "we will employ anyone" message was one that was also very
important here. If we can train people to be sea farmers and give them a
mission that is both good for the world and good for their own self esteem, I
think that would be at least as valuable as the food grown, if not more so.

------
joshuaheard
It's a great idea, the issue is scalability. To have an aquatic farm that
touches the bottom, you could only use the ocean area with depths between 20
and 200 feet. Higher than that, and you have surface turbulence. Lower than
that, and there is not enough light for lots of plants or fish. That narrow
range of depths is a small sliver along our coasts. An area the size of
Washington state, as mentioned in the article, between 20-200 feet, (without
doing the math) would probably run along the entire west coast of the U.S.
(assuming you could overcome the political hurdles of coastal development).

To make it scalable, the farms must be able to function in the open ocean,
regardless of depth. If he could figure that out, it would truly be an aquatic
revolution.

~~~
brohee
Well on the bright side, the south of the north sea (English, Belgian and
Dutch coast and the area in between) is about that depth. That's an enormous
farming are opening up there. Enough to feed Europe and then some...

See depth charts on [http://www.doggerbank.nl/index-
old.htm](http://www.doggerbank.nl/index-old.htm)

------
dineshp2
A very innovative model and it looks promising.

The awareness about such initiatives is still very limited. This model could
go mainstream with awareness and support from the Government.

This model could be especially useful in developing countries, with a coast
line of course, though it was not clear from the article if this is applicable
to fresh water bodies like lakes and rivers.

The cons or potential pitfalls/problems of this model have not been explored
yet. It's something worth looking at.

------
rurban
This kind of farmers revolutions crop all the time in history, thanksfully!
I'm a bit sceptical about the taste of seaweed having being in Japan already,
but of course he is right.

Just see the land farmers revolutions, fighting industrial farming with new
methods. Organic farming (the "bio" label), sellers collectives, Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA). Previously they had to fight the big mills and
banks, now the industry, the government and Monsanto just to keep the nature
and ourself healthy.

There's a whole film festival for new farming
[http://www.mefarms.org/community-kitchen/food-farm-film-
fest...](http://www.mefarms.org/community-kitchen/food-farm-film-festival/)
with lots of recommendations.

"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" (my favorite)
[http://www.angelicorganics.com/](http://www.angelicorganics.com/) and esp.
[http://learngrowconnect.org/](http://learngrowconnect.org/)

[http://foodforthoughtfilm.com/](http://foodforthoughtfilm.com/), ...

~~~
delackner
"sceptical about the taste of seaweed having being in Japan..."

Thanks for settling that then! Nori is just the start. Kombu, a seaweed, is
the basis of most soup broths in Japanese cooking, since it has a savory
flavor. It would be surprising if there aren't other untapped delicious
seaweeds out there for those of us who are not so set in our ways.

~~~
rurban
Yes, partially I'm sceptical because the tastes can range from throwing up,
disgusting, neutral, faboulous (miso soup).

But on the hand he surely knows what he is doing with a successful 20 acres
farm, so I rather believe it tastes good.

~~~
alexc05
Another thing to remember is that tastes can be acquired.

When I was 12 I hated beer, blue cheese and olives. Nowadays I'd have that for
dinner and count myself lucky.

I remember being unwilling to eat the coffee crisp out of my Halloween candy
bag because it tasted too much like coffee. Now I drink 4 cups a day black as
night.

I imagine that if you forced yourself for a week (or some timeline), you'd
love the taste of whatever seaweed came along.

I think that the demonstrable environmental impact may be enough for some
people to force themselves.

~~~
dogma1138
>I think that the demonstrable environmental impact may be enough for some
people to force themselves.

The problem is that this doesn't necessarily scales up, it's very nice for
over-priced niche markets like high end restaurants but if you are going to
feed the world using this type of agriculture it can be just as destructive as
any other type of mass production on a scale that can feed nations not to
mention the world.

------
thangalin
We should focus our attention on taking humans out of the food industry
altogether. Here's a model I've been thinking about that should make it
possible to create a free food society:

[http://i.stack.imgur.com/KfGtn.png](http://i.stack.imgur.com/KfGtn.png)

Not just free as in no cost, but free also as in liberty. Imagine not having
to work for food. Food weaves a recursive economic penalty into all facets of
society.

What's especially amazing about 3D vertical ocean farms is that they can
provide nutrient inputs to the model illustrated above. Harvested,
transported, and delivered automatically, with power from renewable resources.

If people _want_ to grow their own food, that's fine. The point is, we have
the technological prowess to create a society where we needn't spend time nor
money on food out of necessity. Trading our productive years for food is a
huge driving force behind capitalism, which has not proven itself to be the
most environmentally-friendly regime (in terms of greenhouse gas emissions).

Think about this.

By the time viable nuclear fusion comes along (50 years?), we could have a
self-maintaining, open source, free food infrastructure to solve one problem
common to every living human: hunger. The energy consumption required to power
the infrastructure could be switched from limited renewable sources to fusion
sources to help support the global population (with power left over for some
growth).

See also:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_gro...](http://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_the_future)

[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/01/japanese-...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/01/japanese-
firm-to-open-worlds-first-robot-run-farm)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_mining)

~~~
adwn
> _[...] fusion [...] free food [...]_

Fusion is by no means cheap. To quote myself from a different thread:

 _Even if /when we get commercially viable fusion, there's no reason why it
should be significantly cheaper than energy from nuclear fission – you'll
still need extremely complicated, high-precision, high-technology machines,
generators, cooling towers, buildings, skilled workers, some amount of
regulation, and disposal of nuclear waste. Oh, and if your fusion design is a
tokamak, it might easily be more expensive than energy from fission reactors.

If you want electrical energy that's some orders of magnitude cheaper, you'll
need a break-through in fundamental physics._

~~~
thangalin
> there's no reason why it should be significantly cheaper than energy

According to Lockheed Martin, compact fusion has the potential to produce
(modular?) 10MW reactors about the size of a semi-trailer truck. This reactor
size reduction comes with a corresponding cost reduction without depending on
new physics.

[http://www.lockheedmartin.ca/us/products/compact-
fusion.html](http://www.lockheedmartin.ca/us/products/compact-fusion.html)

Note: I'm not a nuclear physicist.

~~~
adwn
Lockheed Martin has yet to produce _any_ evidence that they have achieved
break-even power under laboratory conditions, not to mention a device that
scales to MW levels or delivers cheap energy.

I wouldn't hold my breath.

~~~
thangalin
My point wasn't about Lockheed Martin per se. With ICF, MCF, and MTF, and many
instances of those classes of fusion machines being constructed and tested
globally, there is a path and plan to make nuclear fusion viable in the
future. Doesn't matter that the first machine costs billions, the price will
come down at each every subsequent _iter_ ation, even if it takes 100 years
(or the discovery of room-temperature superconductors).

Back in February the Chinese EAST project (only $37 million USD) confined a
plasma pulse of 50 million K for 102 seconds. Progress is slow, yes, but my
point remains. When fusion is finally viable, we should strive to have an open
infrastructure that liberates humanity from growing, harvesting, and
distributing food. (Japan is well on the way, FWIW.)

Time and money are two compelling reasons. Another is climate change. Some
estimates predict a decrease in certain crop yields (such as maize in South
Africa) by up to 30%. OTOH, some crops will thrive with a higher CO2
concentration, while others will not tolerate the heat and coming droughts.
Indoor farming eliminates global climate as a factor to growth.

~~~
adwn
> _With ICF, MCF, and MTF, and many instances of those classes of fusion
> machines being constructed and tested globally, there is a path and plan to
> make nuclear fusion viable in the future. Doesn 't matter that the first
> machine costs billions, the price will come down at each every subsequent
> iteration_

You could have made the same argument about nuclear fission. Fission energy
has been viable for decades, and yet we still don't have free energy. You
didn't give any reasons why it would be different for fusion.

By the way, your reasoning is flawed: From your assumption that initial
prototypes are expensive (which is valid), and the assumption that subsequent
commercial designs will be less expensive (also most likely valid), you
conclude that it will eventually be so cheap as to be essentially free
(definitely invalid conclusion, with lots and lots of counterexamples).

------
foxhop
Wow this is amazing. I'm building a permaculture system in my back yard in
Connecticut. These renewable strategies are right up my ally!

[https://youtu.be/5FBEMb-Ra14](https://youtu.be/5FBEMb-Ra14) | related - its
my systems I'm building, recorded yesterday, during rain storm.

~~~
mac01021
Nice mounds.

What is the word you keep saying in the video that sounds like "hoboculture"?
I spent about 90 seconds failing to look it up.

~~~
foxhop
hugelkultur - I might pronounce it incorrectly, its a German word.

[http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/](http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/)

------
givinguflac
I wasn't aware of how much more carbon can be trapped or ethanol produced with
these plants. Also interesting that beneficial nutrients from fish mainly come
from plants as well.

~~~
fpoling
Actually fish do not produce Omega-3 at all, _all of it_ comes from algae or
phytoplankton that fish consumes.

~~~
hammock
Similar to how grass-fed beef has more omega-3, I suppose.

------
facepalm
It sounds good, but nothing is zero impact. If an area the size of Washington
state could feed the planet, it would imply that the solar energy hitting an
area of that size is sufficient to produce all the food the planet needs. It
seems unlikely to me, but I admit I haven't done any calculations (I don't
even know how big Washington State is). More likely, those farms use "free
food" that comes their way via ocean currents? So the effective harvesting
area would be much bigger.

~~~
noir_lord
Washington State has an area of 184827 square kilometers.

247 acres to a square kilometer gives you 45652269 acres, article says 25
tonnes per acre, giving a yield of 1141306725 tons or about 160kg for every
person on the planet.

This makes lots of assumptions but even if you half the efficiency you are in
the ballpark of 80kg of nutritious plant matter per every person on the
planet.

It would also work out at ~1600 shellfish per person on the planet.

Lots of assumptions but it's in the ballpark.

------
ib84
This is great, and I hope it get's opensourced and more widespread. One thing
of ecological importance that could be emphasized more, is that the shell of
shell-fish represents a stable carbon sink. It's not so much that sea-gras
extracts more anorganic carbon than land plants, because that organic carbon
is likely going to end up as CO2 one way or another. But shells allow to
effectively remove excessive carbon from the global carbon cycle.

------
SeanDav
> _" Imagine a vertical underwater garden with hurricane-proof anchors on the
> edges..."_

I love this idea but am sceptical on the idea of hurricane _proof_ anchors.
Hurricane resistant more likely. Although, in his defence, having these farms
together with many anchors, makes them even more resistant. The author
basically says this later in the article when he talks about the farms being
storm breaks.

~~~
stcredzero
_I love this idea but am sceptical on the idea of hurricane proof anchors._

Surface waves cause circular motions in water. The closer you are to the
bottom of the ocean, the smaller these circles get. The tendency is that the
farther underwater you are, the easier it is to resist wave action. The issue
isn't whether one can make things hurricane proof. The issue is the economic
feasibility of making something sufficiently hurricane proof.

------
amelius
This guy should give a TED talk.

~~~
reqctomaniac
He already did -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ViaskDSeI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ViaskDSeI)

~~~
e12e
Thank you for that link, but it's not a "TED" talk, it's a "TEDx" talk. I'd
still very much like to see a 2016 "TED" talk from the same person.

All that said, the linked TEDx talk is absolutely worth watching.

------
polskibus
Very interesting idea, I wonder how is it affected by pollution from ships.
Ship pollute much more than cars because they burn the lowest quality of fuel
and somehow managed to withstand regulatory pressure.

So is this 3d farming still producing great food if all the water is polluted
by ship waste?

~~~
fsloth
I think most of the pollution ships produce is directly distributed into
atmosphere via exhaust fumes.

~~~
polskibus
That's not true, the water is seriously polluted too.
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-1...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-
create-pollution-cars-world.html)
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_ship...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shipping)

Sea farming would have to guarantee that it is protected from such pollution,
with harvests rigorously tested on a regular basis.

------
kriro
A couple of years ago I researched how viable it would be to farm noble
crayfish. I just figured it would be kind of cool to have ponds filled with
them. My napkin calculation was "lol no" but I never gave it a real thought.
Was mostly wondering about interesting uses for a pond :P There were some
prohibitive issues with diseases as well.

If by chance anyone ITT does small scale freshwater "farming" I'd be
interested in hearing some stories. Breaking even or a slight loss would be
nice as well as I think it could be an interesting hobby (like beekeeping)

------
Swannie
This sentance caught my attention:

"What is most important, we guarantee to purchase 80 percent of their crops
for the first five years at triple the market rate."

I assume 5 years at today's market rates. That would give them 5 years to
stimulate a demand for the products? If that demand doesn't materialise, then
we just end up with another crushing defeat for the worlds fishermen.

I'm extremely sympathetic to many of the ideas (though, maybe not the forward
contracts), but I fear that if they are not profitable with a smaller,
shorter, purchase support scheme, this is doomed.

------
somberi
Related Link about Kelp

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/a-new-
leaf](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/a-new-leaf)

------
jqm
How do you get a lease on a section of ocean?

~~~
jacalata
>Our farmers don’t own their patch of ocean; they own only the right to grow
shellfish and seaweeds there, which means that anyone can boat, fish, or swim
on their farms

Sounds the same as existing shellfish farms, as far as I know. Here's a story
with a couple details on the process, from Maine
-[http://www.ellsworthamerican.com/maine-
news/waterfront/lease...](http://www.ellsworthamerican.com/maine-
news/waterfront/lease-renewal-for-mussel-farm-questioned)

------
justinclift
Although this sounds useful, it also sounds like the kind of thing that
industrialised agriculture profiteers (eg Monsanto) will go out of their way
to stop. :(

Wonder what strategy places like Monsanto could use for that purpose? First
approach that springs to mind is trying to discredit the approach... probably
combined with something legal like trying to get it banned outright because
"food safety".

Hopefully the industrialised agriculture profiteers can be warded off long
enough for this to get legs. :)

------
kriro
Fascinating on many fronts. One of the most interesting quotes: """According
to the Department of Energy, if you were to take a network of our farms
equaling half the size of the state of Maine, you could replace all the oil in
the United States."""

I also love the general idea of using oysters as "cleaning as a service"
(Bronx river). Pretty cool approach to give up some food farming for cleaning
the water.

Pretty inspiring story :)

------
maxwelljoslyn
This is really really cool. I especially like the part about having two
different types of farms, one for food production, one for soaking up
pollutants from waterways.

------
happywolf
The 3D vertical farm reminds me something a bit tangential, but similar that
you can do at your own home. It is called window farms:
[http://our.windowfarms.org/](http://our.windowfarms.org/)

The idea is to use recycle matters to build a home garden. Nice and
innovative. Also, its build has been open sourced. Worth to take a look.

------
WalterBright
This sounds like a great idea.

I'd also like to see sections of ocean protected like we protect our national
parks. No fishing, no motorized boats. Sort of make them "reservoirs" where
natural life can be undisturbed.

~~~
sneak
Human activities are just as much a part of natural life on Earth as any other
species'.

~~~
rhaps0dy
It's also a human activity to restrict human activities so that they don't
interfere in undesirable ways with non-human activities. All natural of
course.

I mean, I'm totally for trashing the environment when we don't need it
anymore, but right now it's species-wide suicide.

------
chuckledog
This is excellent, in multiple ways. The main things humans are adding here
are a) pollution and b) good strong fishing line. We're pretty good at both of
those things...

------
known
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triarchy_%28theory%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triarchy_%28theory%29)
FTW

------
ifuohoe
Very interesting article DiabloD3, thanks for sharing. Really hope to see some
interesting food blogs about things that you can cook with these kinds of
crops!

------
fblp
This is awesome. I hesitate to bring in a Silicon Valley cliché, but would
anyone else want to subscribe to deliveries of this food?

------
marcus_holmes
really reminds me of the 'tangles' in Anathem (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem)),
based on the same principle of growing mutually supporting foods side-by-side

------
studentrob
This is really cool. Any idea how widespread this method is currently used?

~~~
jamesblonde
No idea. Sounds almost to good to be true. I presume it needs a continental
shelf, which precludes the west coast.

~~~
studentrob
Huh. Well I live in Taiwan and people are always looking for new ways to farm.
Wonder if it'd work here! The storm resistance is particularly interesting
because they get hit every year here.

------
hackaflocka
Very cool. Very very cool.

------
tled
Could this model work in tropical countries (warm waters) ?

