GreenWave is a North American nonprofit focused on the development of

regenerative farming Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration ...

techniques for

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

, called "3D ocean farming", to create

blue carbon Blue carbon is a concept within climate change mitigation that refers to "biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management". Most commonly, it refers to the role that tidal marshes, mangroves and Seag ...

. Their focus is on developing

polyculture In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species together in the same place at the same time, in contrast to monoculture, which had become the dominant approach in developed countries by 1950. Traditional example ...

practices for farming shellfish and seaweeds and

kelp Kelps are large brown algae or seaweeds that make up the order (biology), order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus, genera. Despite its appearance and use of photosynthesis in chloroplasts, kelp is technically not a plant but a str ...

s. These practices include using many layers of the

water column The (oceanic) water column is a concept used in oceanography to describe the physical (temperature, salinity, light penetration) and chemical ( pH, dissolved oxygen, nutrient salts) characteristics of seawater at different depths for a defined ...

, emulating high activity water

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s like

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s, to increase productivity and

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

. The organization focuses on developing globally accessible techniques for this kind of farming. As of 2019, they had a waitlist of over 4,000 farmers in 20 countries needing support in starting such farms. Starting such a farm usually costs between US$20,000–50,000. The nonprofit was created by Bren Smith to spread methods first developed on his Thimble Island Ocean Farm in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

. Emily Stengal is the co-founder and deputy director of the non-profit. In 2015, the organization's 3D ocean farming method won the Buckminster Fuller Institute's Fuller Challenge. The organization also won a 2017 The Index Project prize.

References

External links

* Non-profit organizations based in the United States Sustainable agriculture Aquaculture 501(c)(3) organizations {{Agriculture-stub Blue carbon

See also

References

External links