Environment

Northwest food entrepreneurs bring locally grown seaweed to market

Oregon Public Broadcasting | By Sheraz Sadiq

Published March 30, 2022 at 2:18 PM PDT

Oregon Seaweed grows and sells Pacific dulse, a type of edible, red seaweed, in 1500-gallon tanks at their seaweed farms in Garibaldi and Bandon on the Oregon coast.

If you’re familiar with the taste of seaweed, it’s probably as an ingredient in a sushi roll, cup of miso soup or as a side salad served in a Japanese restaurant. In fact, almost all of the edible seaweed consumed in the U.S. is imported from Asia. But as the demand for plant-based foods grows, some entrepreneurs think the time is ripe to expand the range of edible offerings made from seaweed grown in the U.S., including a puffed snack made from sugar kelp and a leafy, marine substitute for kale. Travis Bettinson, the CEO and director of research and development at Blue Dot Kitchen, and Chuck Toombs, the founder and CEO of Oregon Seaweed, join us to talk about expanding consumers’ minds and palates to the possibilities of edible seaweed.

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