314 Sowmya Balendiran - How to turn seaweed farming into an industry? Start by farming 1000 football fields of tropical seaweed in Indonesia
07/23/24 • 63 min
A conversation with Sowmya Balendiran, co-founder and chief business officer at Sea6 Energy, about regenerative aquaculture, how to restore the oceans and use them more to reduce the pressure on land systems, get fossil fuel use down drastically, like in fertiliser, plastics, and in food of course.
Sowmya is one of the pioneers who helped create the first signs of a tropical seaweed industry. What do you do if you have to invent both sides of the business? How do you grow seaweed industrially at scale and price points that make sense? And how do you process seaweed into products that sell for an interesting enough margin?
Someone will soon mention seaweed. It sounds magical, some species grow super fast, you can harvest them year-round, they don’t need any inputs, don’t need land but sea, which we have a lot of, etc. So, why hasn’t seaweed taken over the world yet? What is needed to industrially farm tropical seaweed? Industrial might sound like what we don’t want, but in tropical seaweed, most work is done by hand, standing knee-deep or neck-deep in the water. We can agree that that won’t scale and get us to a seaweed industry that can replace large amounts of fossil fuels.
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More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/sowmya-balendiran.
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The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
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A conversation with Sowmya Balendiran, co-founder and chief business officer at Sea6 Energy, about regenerative aquaculture, how to restore the oceans and use them more to reduce the pressure on land systems, get fossil fuel use down drastically, like in fertiliser, plastics, and in food of course.
Sowmya is one of the pioneers who helped create the first signs of a tropical seaweed industry. What do you do if you have to invent both sides of the business? How do you grow seaweed industrially at scale and price points that make sense? And how do you process seaweed into products that sell for an interesting enough margin?
Someone will soon mention seaweed. It sounds magical, some species grow super fast, you can harvest them year-round, they don’t need any inputs, don’t need land but sea, which we have a lot of, etc. So, why hasn’t seaweed taken over the world yet? What is needed to industrially farm tropical seaweed? Industrial might sound like what we don’t want, but in tropical seaweed, most work is done by hand, standing knee-deep or neck-deep in the water. We can agree that that won’t scale and get us to a seaweed industry that can replace large amounts of fossil fuels.
---------------------------------------------------
Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits on www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag.
Support our work:
- Share it
- Give a 5-star rating
- Buy us a coffee... or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture
----------------------------------------------------
More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/sowmya-balendiran.
Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.
----------------------------------------------------
The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!
Feedback, ideas, suggestions?
- Twitter @KoenvanSeijen
- Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com
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Previous Episode
313 Jay Albany - Despite the graveyard of D2C companies, it can work in the world’s most remote city
A conversation with Jay Albany, CEO of Dirty Clean Food, about what it takes to build a successful direct-to-consumer business- basically buying from regen farmers and delivering to consumer, restaurants, etc.- in the regen space and in the most remote city on the planet. Despite all challenges of B2C, Jay makes a passionate case for the contrary. A deep dive full of golden nuggets of direct-to-consumer companies, what works and what doesn't, but also a long conversation on the power of transparency within businesses and the most important return of all, inspiration.
What are the lessons learned? Looking at the graveyard of direct-to-consumer companies we have seen, especially in COVID years, raising a lot of money, struggling, or shutting down. Does that mean disrupting the current supermarket oligopolies isn’t worth it?
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----------------------------------------------------
More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/jay-albany.
Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.
----------------------------------------------------
The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!
https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/
https://groundswellag.com/2025-speakers/
Find out more about our Generation-Re investment syndicate:
https://gen-re.land/
Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more here
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Next Episode
315 Felipe Pasini - Walking the land of Amadeco Syntropic Farm with regenerative farmer
What if you could turn a dry, water-scarce plot of land into a thriving ecosystem? In this new episode of Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer we follow the journey of Felipe Pasini, as we explore his transformative work on the Amadeco farm in Depressa, Salento, Puglia.
Through syntropic farming - also known as syntropic agroforestry or successional agroforestry -, a set of principles and practices created by the Swiss researcher and farmer Ernst Götsch, Felipe and his partner Dayana Andrade are bringing a revolutionary approach to intensive agricultural production adapted for the Mediterranean climate. Felipe shares a detailed design featuring strategically spaced tree lines and aromatic plants like sage and rosemary that create a self-sustaining ecosystem. We also talk about the critical role of pruning in syntropic agroforestry and how mechanization can be harmoniously integrated into these complex systems as well as how to maximize biomass production and minimize water dependency, even in the most challenging environments.
We also delve into the long-term benefits of regenerative agriculture over conventional methods. Felipe provides real-life examples of increased biomass and faster timber growth, illustrating the transformative power of proper land management. We explore multilayer agroforestry design principles and the potential role of AI in sustainable farm management. Finally, Felipe gives an inside look at innovative olive farming techniques that promise to revolutionize the industry.
This episode is also available in video format on Youtube.
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More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/felipe-pasini-2.
Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.
----------------------------------------------------
The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!
https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/
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Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food - 314 Sowmya Balendiran - How to turn seaweed farming into an industry? Start by farming 1000 football fields of tropical seaweed in Indonesia
Transcript
Seaweed seaweed as soon as you mention regenerative aquaculture or how can we restore the oceans and use them more to reduce the pressure on land systems , get fossil fuel use down dramatically , like in fertilizers , plastics , in food , of course , some of them mention seaweed . They sound magical . Some species grow super fast , you can harvest them year round , they don't need any
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