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I don't think there is enough to scale that way. I'm also not sure if there are ecosysytem concerns from taking it from the sea and moving it to the midwest. I have no idea how seaweed will affect soil long term. That said, within the limits of the above by all means use it. Just don't pretend it is an answer along.

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Seaweed is already a fertilizer and used around the globe. It's no different then decomposed lettuce or any other leaf vegetation, it just grows underwater.

Yeah honestly I think there would be too much processing involved to make it realistic.

The benefits of Seaweed to soil (ignoring salt and sand) has been proven to help bring key nutrients and metals to the soil that are missing from farm land that was used for single plant production.

It will be easier to just add those elements directly as chemicals.

Depends on the element that needs to be added, seaweed has the benefit of being a weed that can grow in the right conditions very fast.

And seaweed will have the drawback of being an extremely dilute source of trace elements. Consider iodine. Seaweed is rich in iodine, which means the concentration of the element can be as high as tens of ppm by mass. Which is cheaper, applying 1 kilogram of iodine (cost about $30) to a field, mixed in with regular fertilizer, or transporting and applying tens of tonnes of seaweed?

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