Seaweed gold - A wonderful resource

“GOD made the world, but we made the field” declares alpha male The Bull McCabe in John B Keane’s The Field. McCabe and his neighbours made land, or enriched land if you prefer, by manhandling tons of seaweed onto otherwise poor soil.

They knew that the great bounty on our 3,500 miles of seashore was almost beyond compare. Science tells us that seaweed is the only food known to contain all the vitamins, minerals and trace elements that humans need and that it is one of the most nutritious plants on earth. It has great commercial value too. According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, seaweed harvested for food is worth more than €4.5bn a year. Because of this, commercial interests are trying to secure exclusive harvesting rights and exclude communities that have for generations used the resource. It is of course important to develop the few natural resources this island has, but it would be wrong if communities which traditionally use seaweed were excluded. Coastal communities still feel the loss of our fisheries when we joined the EU and such an arrangement cannot be allowed again.