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Traditionally, seaweed cultivation has been largely limited to Asia, but this is changing.

Editor’s Note: Vincent Doumeizel is senior Adviser at United Nations Global Compact on Oceans and director for the Food Programme for the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. He is also guest editor of CNN’s Call to Earth series. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

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Seaweed might be the greatest untapped resource we have on this planet.

It can be a nutritious food, an alternative to plastic, restore our oceans and could even help tackle climate change. But while there are 12,000 different types of seaweed, we know how to cultivate fewer than 30. If we’re to make the most of this miraculous plant-like algae, we must learn to love it and learn to grow it sustainably.

Sustainable food source

Today, our land-based food systems are contributing to global warming and biodiversity loss, but more than 800 million people are starving. Meanwhile, oceans cover more than two thirds of our planet, but they contribute less than 3% of our total food calories, according to some estimates.

We can change that paradigm by encouraging seaweed cultivation. Seaweed is super-fast growing, it doesn’t need land, nor pesticides and it doesn’t need to be watered. It’s also packed with protein, nutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals.

What’s more, dried, seaweed retains its nutrients. A nutritious product with a long shelf life and no need for cold storage on its journey to the consumer is good news, both for emerging economies, where refrigeration during transport is not always available, and for our climate, because it saves on the carbon emissions that come from keeping perishable produce fresh.

UliU/iStockphoto/Getty Images
Seaweed has been used in Asian recipes for centuries, but thanks to its nutritional benefits and sustainability, the ingredient is now going global. Miyeok-guk (pictured) is a traditional Korean soup, consisting of miyeok (a type of seaweed), beef and other vegetables. It's typically eaten on birthdays. Scroll through the gallery to see how else seaweed can be eaten.
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Seaweed has become popular in Western baking in recent years. In Portland, US, the Southside Bakery prepares fresh seaweed bagels.
Dixie D. Vereen/The Washington Post/Getty Images
The Tail Up Goat restaurant in Washington, DC, serves toasted seaweed sourdough topped with pickled fennel.
Romas Foord
For those with more of a sweet tooth, in her latest book "Irish Seaweed Kitchen" chef Prannie Rhatigan has a recipe for banana bread that includes alaria seaweed.
Romas Foord
She also has a recipe for gingerbread cookies that includes seaweed, which she says is a great way to get kids into eating the algae.
Kate Waters
Or, if you're in need of a health kick, try adding seaweed to your morning smoothie. Rhatigan says that many seaweed varieties can be used, paired with whichever fruit and vegetables you like. In fact, the more types of seaweed you include the better, she says.
Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
But if these inventive recipes don't appeal, you can stick to the dishes seaweed is famous for, like sushi rolls. The fish and rice rolls wrapped in dried seaweed can be found across the globe, and are a staple in Japanese cuisine.
Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
In Asia, seaweed salads are also popular, such as this one which uses sea spaghetti for its color, light texture and versatile taste.
Dong-Min Shin
At the restaurant Soigné in Seoul, South Korea, chef Jun Lee has devised a modern take on miyeok-guk. This dish consists of abalone (sea mollusc), covered in a seaweed beurre blanc sauce.

But despite its huge potential, seaweed cultivation is currently largely limited to Asia, which is responsible for 98% of the 35 million metric tons of seaweed sold worldwide.

If we want to establish a resilient seaweed market elsewhere, the world needs to embrace it as a food. And there is huge potential for its cultivation. Globally, seaweed could be farmed across an area of ocean almost the size of Australia and provide enough food for 10% of human diets by 2050, according to a study led by University of Queensland in Australia.

But even when humans don’t eat it, seaweed has other benefits for food production: it can be used as a natural  biostimulant for plants that can replace fertilizers, and as a feed for animals, with some research suggesting it can reduce the amount of planet-heating methane emitted by cattle.

A green solution

Beyond food production, seaweed offers a host of other environmental benefits.

It has been used to create alternatives to plastic packaging that are biodegradable and compostable, and even edible.

Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket/Getty Images
A restaurant in Jakarta serves ice cream in an edible cup made of seaweed.

Some companies are using it as an alternative textile to cotton, a plant that uses huge quantities of land, water and pesticides.

It also has potential as a scalable, nature-based solution for tackling climate change. As it grows, seaweed draws down carbon dioxide – and it can grow at an astonishing rate. Giant kelp can grow up to 50 centimeters a day, reaching heights of around 60 meters.

There has been some investigation into the potential of seaweeds as a carbon store, and although more is needed, one study says that seaweed habitats are believed to be the most productive of all coastal vegetated ecosystems, and suggested that the world’s seaweed sequesters as much carbon as all the planet’s seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves combined.  

What’s more, seaweed can help restore and regenerate our oceans. It absorbs pollutants such as heavy metals and nitrates, and it encourages biodiversity in our oceans by providing a critical habitat for marine life, and a place for smaller creatures to evade predators.

Under threat

James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty Images
A biologist holds clumps of dulse seaweed grown by Cascadia Seaweed in British Columbia, Canada. The company is cultivating the algae for use as a feed additive and biostimulant in agriculture.

But just as we are recognizing its untapped potential, seaweed is becoming increasingly vulnerable. California, Norway and Tasmania have all lost more than 80% of their kelp in recent years, the result of climate change, pollution and overfishing.

We urgently need to protect, replant and cultivate these ecosystems or they will disappear.

I have three kids, and they need to hear solutions to the environmental problems facing our planet. Seaweed can be one of them.

If we learn to sustainably cultivate our ocean, we can contribute to feeding the entire global population while mitigating climate change and restoring biodiversity. But it can only be done together. So, if you think of seaweed as slimy, smelly and unsexy, it’s time to think again. It’s part of our future.

“The Seaweed Revolution,” by Vincent Doumeizel and translated by Charlotte Coombe, published by Legend Press, is on sale in the US now.

Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.