Boston Globe quotes Redmond in article on New England seaweed food industry

The Boston Globe spoke with Sarah Redmond, a marine extension associate with the Maine Sea Grant College Program at the University of Maine, for the article “New England seaweed the next big thing in local food?” Redmond said she she wanted to be a seaweed farmer since she was 15 years old, when she would explore the coastal shores of Maine, learning to identify species and cook with them at home, according to the article. “It combined my two favorite things, which were gardening and the ocean,” she said. “I thought it would be pretty cool to have a garden in the sea.” Now Redmond splits her time between helping would-be seaweed farmers learn to tend and harvest their crops, conducting original research on how to grow species that have never before been cultivated in North America, and championing native, domestically grown seaweeds, the article states. “There’s so much you can do with seaweed,” Redmond said. “It helps improve water quality. It could be a tool to fight ocean acidification. It’s exciting to think of all the things you can do with kelp farms, but also kelp as a product.” As a food, Redmond said seaweed is amazing. “It’s a super food. It’s the most nutritious vegetable on the planet,” she said.