Greener Grazing and Hortimare Team Up
Greener Grazing and Hortimare announced today that they have agreed to collaborate on work to accelerate ocean-based commercial cultivation of the red seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis (“AT”). The inclusion of small amounts of AT seaweed in ruminant animal diets has been shown to have unparalleled effects in virtually eliminating enteric methane emissions from the animal while, at the same time, enhancing animal productivity. Livestock production of methane is a significant contributor to global warming, with climate impacts comparable to all of the world’s cars, planes and ships combined.
Greener Grazing is the leading global initiative developing the technology required to launch global AT cultivation through scalable, cost-efficient ocean-based farming. To date, Greener Grazing has achieved numerous breakthroughs in AT strain selection and cultivation, creating a unique platform to manage the environmental and biological triggers to produce spores allowing ropes to be seeded for ocean-based aquaculture.
“Teaming up with Hortimare brings a unique and deep bench of technical and operational capacity to help Greener Grazing leverage the power of seaweed to tackle climate change,” said Josh Goldman, CEO of Australis Aquaculture and Project Lead of Greener Grazing.
The Netherlands-based company Hortimare advises, supports, and collaborates with seaweed farmers to help them achieve the scale needed to make seaweed cultivation globally competitive. The collaboration between Greener Grazing and Hortimare adds new resources and expertise in breeding and hatchery operations to make ocean-based AT cultivation a reality. “We truly value this collaboration with Greener Grazing, the frontrunner in the domestication of Asparagopsis taxiformis,” said Haik van Exel, Managing Director, Hortimare.
The companies have jointly hired Dr. Phil Kerrison, one of Europe’s leading seaweed researchers, to support the project as a Research Scientist. “I’m thrilled to be working with the skilled team at Greener Grazing,” said Dr. Kerrison. “The project is a unique opportunity to advance the seaweed industry through exciting biological research.”
Project teams are currently working on a broad range of development initiatives in Vietnam, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Leveraging Hortimare’s expertise in the field will accelerate further development and scale, including supporting the addition of commercial partners to undertake future cultivation projects.
About Greener Grazing
Greener Grazing is a leader in commercializing a seaweed-based feed additive that can dramatically reduce enteric methane emissions and enhance the productivity of ruminant animal production. Created in 2018 by Australis Aquaculture, LLC, Greener Grazing researches and develops scalable process chain technologies to produce Asparagopsis taxiformis, a red seaweed native to the marine tropics. Learn more at greenergrazing.org.
About Hortimare
Since 2011, Hortimare has supplied high-quality starting material to enable seaweed farmers to harvest good yields. Hortimare advises, supports, and collaborates closely with seaweed farmers around the world in order for them to expand and scale up to essential volumes to make seaweed a competitive alternative for products with high protein or other valuable content resources. Together with professional partners throughout the process chain, from global research institutes on one end to the industry on the other end, Hortimare collaborates closely to build a thriving seaweed industry. Learn more at hortimare.com.