Seaplants are simple organisms that exploit sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and oxygen and during the photosynthesis process they transform into a valuable protein source for becoming a sustainable superfood. There are various edible seaplants for human consumption that have high protein content and as a result of absorbing minerals from seawater contain 10 to 20 times more essential amino acids than land plants.

Seaplants have a highly variable composition depending on the species, time of collection, habitat, and also external conditions such as water, temperature, light intensity, and nutrient concentration in water. They have a relatively high protein quality compared to cereal and soy ﬂour and higher proportions of total essential amino acids than wheat ﬂour.

The high mineral content of seaplants is attributed to their ability to absorb inorganic substances from the ocean environment and they also contain a small amount of lipids as polyunsaturated fatty acids. Seaplants are super rich in potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus and are a source of essential trace elements, such as iron, manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt, selenium, and iodine.

Estimates on the size of the global commercial seaplant market vary but research firm MarketsandMarkets estimates it at $16.7 billion in 2020 with growth to $30.2 billion by 2025. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, Asia dominates the seaplant market with 97.4 percent of world production and in the past 50 years seaplant production increased form 2.2 million metric tons to 35.8 million metric tons. The rapid rise in seaplant farming is propelled by global demand, increasing industrial, agricultural, and feed-related applications and rising market for seaplants as a healthy nutritious ingredient for snack products, shakes, and powders for the $168 billion Dietary & Supplement Industry.

The ocean is a rich resource loaded with nutrients for cultivating sustainable seaplants as compared to increasingly depleted dirt-poor land soil. Consider that a carrot 50 years ago had 50 times the essential nutrients than a carrot does today. A landmark 2004 University of Texas study compared what's now on store shelves to vegetables from 1950 found declines of 5% to 40% in certain nutrients among 43 types of produce. Terrestrial food production is losing its nutritional value and taste to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits such as size, growth rate, and pest resistance.

Noticeable nutrient decline began after the Green Revolution in the 1950s and 60s when farmers were introduced to practices for increasing yields using chemical fertilizers. American farmers, who produce most of the food to feed the planet's burgeoning population, annually spend over $23.5 billion on fertilizer. Scientists researching these practices discovered that while these techniques increase the quantity of food grown, the increased yield also comes with a decrease in vital nutrients and minerals known as the “dilution effect.” Over the past 50 years the nutrient content of soil has been depleted by these intensive farming practices making the content of the plants grown less nutritious.

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere further accelerates dirt-poor soil. The increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is changing the chemical makeup and diluting vitamins and minerals in key crops with rice losing protein, iron, zinc, and vitamins B1, B2, B5 and B9; carrots and tomatoes depleted of magnesium, iron, copper, and potassium; and fruits have less calcium, magnesium, and sodium.

“With Earth’s burgeoning human populations to feed, we must turn to the sea with new understanding and new technology,” Cousteau presciently predicted in his 1973 television show The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. “We need to farm it as we farm the land.”

I agree that we must turn to the sea with new technologies, but I disagree with farming the sea as we have the land using polluting petrochemicals stimulants for increasing yields having lower nutritional quality.