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Comment by frankbreetz | Hacker News Reader

"Transportation of the processed or unprocessed seaweed should be kept to a minimum, so cultivation in the region of use is recommended specially to avoid long-haul shipping."

"Asparagopsis taxiformis, (red sea plume or limu kohu) formerly A. sanfordiana, is a species of red algae, with cosmopolitan distribution in tropical to warm temperate waters."[0]

This seems to be a pretty big hurdle to overcome. Either all the cows are going to have to move toward the warm oceans or we will have to figure out how to grow the algae near the cows, both of these are huge undertakings.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asparagopsis_taxiformis

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I think farming it at scale is something some groups are already pursuing—likely mainly because it could mean big, big business.

I'm out of my depth, but is there any reason it couldn't be farmed in a hothouse?

Or, just ship the seaweed. There is no reason to "keep it to a minimum", shipping things takes far less energy than people like to imagine.

You'll end up spending FAR more energy cultivating it in lots of small locales.

Yes, but 'localism' lets people feel like they are 'making an impact', and that's what matters to them; feeling good about themselves.

They are feeding, at the high range, 0.5% seaweed. A cow eats about 10kg of feed a day for 20 months before it is in turn eaten. That seems like 6000kg of feed which means 30kg of seaweed to make a 500kg cow.

Algae to cow is likely a longer distance than cow to table, but one presumes the bulk of that is on rail and more efficient than the trucks used for feed to farm, cow to processor, and meat to table.

Shipping the algae doesn’t seem like a deal breaker.

Shipping by electrified rail is one option. Efficient and potentially 100% clean.

Where are you getting the electricity to power the rail?

Oh I don't know, how about: solar, wind, nuclear, hydro; plenty of ways to power a railway network without the need for fossil fuels.

The real challenge here is likely governments simply not wanting to invest in this.

Also, agricultural runoff can be an issue for oceans. I think that’s mostly fertilizer, but I have to imagine a large scale beef operation near the ocean could have runoff consequences.

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