A cry for kelp? How farming sea crops could ease climate crisis

To any passing gulls, T it doesn't look like much: a few buoys bobbing about in the North Sea, four miles off Scarborough.

- Helen Pidd

But the buoys mark the next frontier in UK farming and an initiative that could help North Yorkshire become the first carbon-negative region in England.

Some 35 meters under the waves is the UK's largest offshore seaweed farm, a 10-hectare (25-acre) patch operated by SeaGrown, a firm started four years ago by the marine chemist Laura Robinson and Wave Crookes, an aptly named mariner.

In 2015 they met and fell in love working on a British Antarctic Survey icebreaker and resolved to return to the UK to develop a form of "regenerative, restorative" industry. They are growing three fast-growing species of kelp that can be used to make everything from a biodegradable alternative to plastic bottles to an umami-rich condiment already stocked in Selfridges, as well as eco-friendly fertiliser and cattle feed. When the Guardian visits, they are taking a delivery of soap and hand cream made from their seaweed by a local company, Cosy Cottage.

Seaweed is a crop that scientists believe could help tackle the climate crisis. A 2019 study found it is 20 times more effective than plants at carbon sequestration: taking CO₂ from the atmosphere and "locking" it up in solid or liquid form. Seaweed does this effortlessly out at sea.