5 min read
3D Farming Is Changing Our Diets, the Economy and the Planet
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What is GreenWave?
Although GreenWave is one of many organizations working to mitigate modern problems caused by climate change, GreenWave stands out in their scope. Smith jokingly refers to one of his solutions, aquaculture (or “3D farming”) as “the least deadliest catch.” Unlike some marine conservation efforts, 3D farming goes above and beyond by literally rebuilding ocean ecosystems from the ground up - or the top of the water down, as it were. If you’re having trouble imagining what aquaculture means, here’s a handy visualization of what the process looks like:![](https://assets.foreo.com/files/static/images/wp-text/greenwave-3d-farming-1_1.png)
Why It’s Needed
The state of our oceans is grim, to put it lightly. While we’re constantly reminded that the Earth’s resources are finite, the extent to which we’ve exploited our oceans has taken us to the end of the line. As Pavan Sukhdev of the UN Environment Programme put it, "We are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish." Smith has experienced the effects of overfishing, climate change and the rage of a ravaged ocean for himself. Within two years, super-storms hurricanes Irene and Sandy wiped out 80 percent of Smith’s oyster crop and destroyed over 50 percent of his gear. As a commercial fisherman, he also witnessed the havoc wreaked by factory trawlers, a method of netting fish and other seafood that tears up entire ecosystems from the ocean floor, and then discards whatever is not needed for market. Every year, anywhere from 8 percent to 25 percent of the total global catch is simply thrown away - about 27 million tons of fish annually.In one year, a one acre 3D farm can produce 500,000 shellfish and 20 tons of sea vegetables - an endeavor that requires absolutely zero inputs: no fresh water, fertilizer or pesticide.
What 3D Farming Is Doing
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Creating Jobs Seaweed’s relatively easy cultivation and its uses across so many industries also creates jobs. As Smith explains it, “I’m an environmentalist, but I’m not an environmentalist. I’m not gonna do all this remediation and create these farms unless fisherman are making a living.” The numbers don’t lie: While a one million dollar investment in offshore oil and gas development creates an average 8.9 jobs, the same investment in coastal restoration creates 17.1. A growing population needs more than food - climate change also demands that we create economic conditions that keep us employed, as well.Besides food and fertilizer, kelp is also used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and even as a biofuel - an ocean farm half the size of the state of Maine could grow enough biofuel in one year to replace all of the oil used in the US.
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