Seads – Superfood harvested from the ocean

_{Photo credit: © Seads / Enactus Münster e.V.} 

Seads defies climate change and produces high-quality food, stores additional CO2 and regenerates maritime ecosystems in coastal regions. Seads thus offers an overall concept by slowing down the greenhouse gas effect through effective CO2 storage on the one hand and mitigating the effects of climate change and establishing solutions to restore and preserve our endangered ecosystems and sustainable food production on the other.

The Seads project is rethinking food by introducing an innovative way of sustainable marine agriculture. This is achieved through the controlled cultivation of seagrass meadows and the harvesting of seeds that are edible and particularly nutritious for humans. For example, the seeds have a significantly higher protein, vitamin and omega-3 content than conventional rice and can be safely harvested under water regardless of infertile soils, dry periods and extreme weather.

With a yield comparable to wheat fields, a new superfood can be produced in significant quantities in this way. Seagrass is also the most efficient natural CO2 reservoir and stores many times more CO2 than forests. It provides a valuable habitat for millions of creatures, increases biodiversity and water quality and offers a natural coastal protection measure against coastal erosion. The cultivation of seagrass is uncompromisingly sustainable: no irrigation, no use of pesticides, no pests and no dependence on drying soils. Nutritious seeds are produced in cycles, which can be easily processed and integrated into our usual diets. Harvesting the seeds not only provides the resource for the product, it also allows a seed bank to be set up in parallel and controlled sowing to ensure the growth of new seagrass. The sale of the seeds not only produces a sustainable food product, but also finances the restoration of seagrass meadows and thus the scaling up of their positive properties. This can also reduce financial dependency in environmental protection and make climate protection economically attractive.

^{©Seads / Enactus Münster e.V.}