Water, water, everywhere. Have fun trying to burn this bit.

Finally, after coverage on computer attacks and maidservice, some news that's considerably less asinine.

There's at least one recent article out on how seaweed farms improve ocean pH and provide food and raw materials. There's also been years of existing work on polyculture within those farms to boost food production. Think Three Sisters on land, but instead of companion plants, animals like crab, shrimp, and clams can be raised among the seaweed.

Some of that existing work also pointed out a problem of monocultures in seaweed farms (analogous, perhaps, to the way corn or wheat have been grown on land), so I'm curious to know if there are seaweed farms that have experimented on growing multiple underwater flora instead of just combining it with fauna. There's also research that's been done on underwater habitat destruction in the creation of these farms - since growing shellfish and other undersea critters reads to me like a selective sort of providing increased habitat, I wonder if there isn't a way to permit, if not encourage, wild animals within seaweed farms. Good thing there are people who've been working on this long before the media got interested.

Parts of Europe have a historical tradition of seaweed in their diets, and of course Asia's been farming seaweed for a long time. (Lato was hyper-local farm-to-table eating for me long before the trend got a name - they're better known as sea grapes.) Since of course tropical seaweed doesn't survive in temperate seas, I got curious to see whether there were any similar operations nearby, using edibles that could weather the weather in these parts. Turns out there was a pilot farm just north of here, one that focused on cold-water species of seaweed. Sadly, it succumbed to the forces of NIMBeach.

There are existing operations closer by that survived, on land and in the water, that still grow seaweed for the table. It would be nice to think, however, that those who resisted such operations in favor of a pretty, pretty view would reconsider their position. Whatever happens, I've got my soup - though I'll still have my judgy-face on when reading the product origin label of its ingredients.