“There is a new seaweed economy that can be created,” said Dan Lesh, deputy director of the Southeast Conference, a regional business group in Alaska that’s helping distribute tens of millions of federal dollars to help develop the industry.
It’s the kind of reinvention that has to take place if the agriculture industry is to shed its carbon-intensive ways. But Alaska’s nascent kelp industry also shows that growing the infrastructure and market for a new crop is not going to be easy, with everyone involved, including Lesh and Lankard, charting the path as they go along. In the process, the oceans could become more industrialized — and there could be more competition among locals, and with outsiders, for waters off its shores…
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