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Cascadia Seaweed produces seaweed biostimulants to increase crop yield and improve stress resistance, and cow feed additives to improve feed conversion efficiency.
About
Seaweed cultivation is a regenerative form of aquaculture that offers solutions to challenges created by traditional agriculture, promising increased food production with reduced climate impact. Grown in the ocean without the use of arable land, freshwater, fertilizer or pesticides, seaweed (macroalgae) represents a sustainable source of food and biomaterials. Seaweed demand in the agricultural market is growing at double-digit rates as producers seek biological solutions to improve yields and reduce emissions and chemical use. However, current seaweed supply is capped by harvesting quotas; 99% of non-food seaweed products are derived from wild harvest and are limited to one or two available species. Cascadia Seaweed, founded in 2019, is building a seaweed platform built on biodiscovery, cultivation and processing. Cascadia Seaweed has established a leadership position in the seaweed cultivation industry in North America and has grown to be the largest vertically-integrated ocean cultivator with 8 active sites (25 hectares/62 acres in operation) and a fresh weight harvest of 200 wet tonnes (440,000 pounds) this spring. Cascadia operates in British Columbia (BC), Canada, a location that enjoys multiple competitive advantages: 25,000 kms of coastline, pristine growing conditions in the ‘goldilocks’ zone, available and competitive labour, affordable energy rates, underutilized facilities capacity from the fish industry, favourable regulations and government support, and direct access via rail/road/port to US, Canadian and Asian markets. BC is projected to have less exposure to warming ocean temperatures compared to Europe, Asia and Eastern North America, and Cascadia Seaweed is moving northwards and diversifying growing areas to mitigate against this risk. By partnering with coastal First Nations, the traditional stewards of the land and the farm owners, the company has a pipeline to the most tenure in North America, and is targeting 1000 hectares under cultivation producing 40,000 wet tonnes of seaweed within 5 years. The company’s focus is biological agricultural products including biostimulants for plants and crops, that improve yields and stress resistance, and reduce fertilizer requirements, and bovine feed supplements to improve feed conversion efficiency and reduce methane emissions. The company offers producers a nature-based solution addressing the global food challenge, improves producer margins, and reduces agricultural output of the most potent greenhouse gasses: methane and nitrous oxide (while also providing carbon credit opportunities). Biodiscovery is progressing at speed, with only a few dozen of the thousands of species of macroalgae having been researched. Cascadia Seaweed partners with world-class labs to identify new uses for species it can cultivate at scale. In collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) and the Verschuren Centre, research and development is focused on the organic chemical constituents of seaweeds for high value applications and the efficacy of seaweed products in various applications. AAFC is researching supplementation in bovine diets at low inclusion rates to improve Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE), growth rate and methane reduction. Preliminary results indicate efficacy in line with the targets of >=5% FCE improvement, however the results are based on a small sample size and larger feed trials are needed to verify those preliminary data. The Verschuren Centre research is on biostimulants, has shown yield improvements of 10-20% improved root growth, count and structure, with lower dosages required than the competitor control. Cascadia Seaweed also provides ecosystem services in the form of sea-reforestation to improve biodiversity and ocean ecosystem health, with contracts underway with government major global NGOs.
Key Benefits
Producers are facing growing pressure to grow more food to feed a growing population, while reducing their carbon footprint and the use of chemical fertilizers. They are facing margin compression from rising fertilizer and feed costs, and increasing mandates to cut agricultural greenhouse gases. Cascadia Seaweed is helping to solve these problems by growing regenerative seaweed biomass in the ocean, without arable land, freshwater, or crop inputs, for use in crop biostimulants and bovine feed additives, to increase yields, improve stress resistance, reduce costs and reduce agricultural carbon emissions. Crop farmers who use our biostimulants see faster seed germination, stronger root development, improved nutrient uptake and greater abiotic stress resistance, while reducing synthetic fertilizer and water inputs. Beef and dairy farmers who use our feed-additives see an improvement in feed conversion and productivity, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cow burps. Demand for biological solutions is increasing with the seaweed biostimulants market growing 14% p.a. over the past 5 years, and forecast to reach more than double by 2030.
Applications
Biostimulants Biostimulants alter biosynthesis pathways in plants to modulate nutrient uptake and enhance resistance to abiotic stress (drought, salt stress) and increase crop yield and quality. They act to improve the soil microbiome, which in turn provides benefits for the plant. Biostimulants can reduce the application rates of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides by enhancing their efficacy. Crop farmers who replace some or all inorganic fertilizers with the company's biostimulants should see faster seed germination, stronger root development, improved nutrient uptake, and greater abiotic stress resistance while reducing total water inputs. Seaweed biostimulants, combined with beneficial microorganisms, are well known to help plants promote vegetative growth and development. The use of seaweed-based bioproducts has been gaining momentum in crop production systems owing to their unique bioactive components and effects. They have phytostimulatory properties that result in increased plant growth and yield parameters in several important crop plants. They have phytoelicitor activity as their components evoke defence responses in plants that contribute to resistance to several pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses including drought, salinity, and cold. This is often linked to the upregulation of important defence-related genes and pathways in the plant system, priming the plant defences against future attacks. They also evoke phytohormonal responses due to their specific components and interaction with plant growth regulation. Treatment by seaweed extracts and products also cause significant changes in the microbiome components of soil and plant in support of sustainable plant growth. Seaweed-derived biostimulants have naturally high levels of sulfated polysaccharides, polyphenols, phytohormones (cytokinins and auxins), mannitol, amino acids and antioxidants. Specific primary and secondary metabolites in the seaweeds have been shown to provide resistance against biotic stress (pests and pathogens such as insects, nematodes, fungi, bacteria and viruses). Demand for biological solutions is increasing with the seaweed biostimulants market growing 14% p.a. CAGR over the past 5 years (Kline Report in data room ). Stratus Ag Research (Data room s. 4.2 Market Studies) reports seaweed extracts as having the highest customer satisfaction rating amongst biostimulant alternatives at 77.5%. Prices are also rising, with a major competitor increasing prices by 100% over the past 5 years due to a fixed amount of supply in North America (wild harvest is subject to quota). While this is a large and growing market, most of the supply of biostimulants is from wild harvested seaweeds, in particular Ascophyllum, due to its accessibility. Wild harvest has been criticized due to its harmful environmental effects on ocean health and biodiversity, and quotas are imposed. In Canada, the supply of wild seaweed harvesting is subject to licenced quota, with producers operating at full capacity. Some have expanded internationally in search of biostock. Cascadia Seaweed will offer the market the following unique selling points: Deliver different species for targeted beneficial effects, utilizing blends where appropriate Offer consistent, high-quality supply Cultivate net-new seaweed, thereby providing an environmentally sustainable supply The approximate price of a liquid seaweed biostimulant extract is between C$5–8/L wholesale. Cow Feed Additives The Food and Agriculture Division of the United Nations predicts that world meat production will double by 2050 to feed a population of 10 billion seeking a higher protein diet. With climate change and limited additional arable land, the livestock industry is actively exploring non-land-based feedstock solutions for animal feed. Even more urgent is the issue of enteric methane emissions from ruminants caused in part by the current feed composition. The US and Canada have cow populations that annually emit GHGs equivalent to 50 million cars. Livestock belching of methane (CH4) from enteric fermentation is the largest contributor (40%) to agriculture emissions and accounts for roughly 6% of total US GHGs. For trapping heat, CH4 is 28 times more potent than CO2 and a major focus of political attention for achieving 2030 climate goals. The cattle and dairy industries are under pressure to reduce their climate impact. California, Europe and Canada have set targets or mandates to cut methane emissions from the dairy and cattle sector by 30-40% by 2030. Current solutions involve a variety of feed supplements, both organic and synthetic, ranging from garlic and lemongrass with low effectivity to a synthetic chemical, 3-NOP, branded as Bovaer and owned by DSM, which reduces methane by 30% but is not approved for use in North America. Asparagopsis, a red macroalgae, has been shown to reduce methane emissions by over 80% but it is non-native to mainland North America and Europe and therefore must be cultivated in closed containment on land. The company believes the technology is difficult to scale up economically, and will be either a niche player or combined with larger volume alternatives as blends. In other areas, such as Australia and Hawaii, it is being grown in the ocean and closed containment environments, however, the company understands, here too, are significant challenges to scaling up production. Cascadia’s seaweeds offer an effective supplement due to their effect on the rumen microbiome to increase nutrient uptake, thereby increasing Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE) and reducing methane emissions. Beef and dairy farmers who use the company's feed additives should see an improvement in feed conversion to meat or milk while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cow burps. For cattle farmers, feed costs are the largest component of total costs, and these have risen significantly in the last few years. Cattle farmers have told the company that improvements in FCE is a key driver for their profitability, and this is what the company is targeting. Cascadia is using a $1.1M grant from Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) to fund a scientific study to identify the valuable compounds in seaweed for feed and test efficacy in labs and live trials, with 3 objectives to create value for beef and dairy cattle farmers in the US and Canada: - Improvement in feed conversion efficiency and daily growth rates of 5%+ - Reduction in enteric methane emissions - Improved animal health and sustainable product quality Preliminary pre-published results are on track to meet or exceed the targets, however they have not been peer reviewed and follow-up experiments with larger sample sizes will be needed. Tesco could assist in this regard.