The tariffs announced recently are going to have real consequences—for trade, for inflation, for supply chains. And personally, I think they’re harmful. For my business, for my friends and partners in Mexico, and for the broader project of international cooperation—which is absolutely essential for a livable future.
But if you’ve been building for this kind of pressure point—not reacting to it—it also sharpens the picture.
For Blue Evolution, that picture has been coming into focus for over a decade. We didn’t start this company because of geopolitical tension.
We started it because we saw a gap—and an opportunity… We knew the U.S. needed a seaweed supply chain built outside of China. We knew it could anchor entirely new sectors—agriculture, food, health, biomaterials, even critical minerals. We knew that if we did it right, seaweed could become one of the highest-leverage tools for regenerating oceans, economies, and climate all at once.
So we went to work—starting way back when the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory was approximately 395 parts per million.
It’s now at 427.
And we kept going, even when the industry was still being treated like a niche.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but China grows more than half of the world’s seaweed. And just like with solar panels, lithium batteries, and magnets, it dominates not only production—but processing, R&D, and price-setting.
Here’s the thing: we can beat them. Not by replicating their model, but by doing it smarter.
With U.S. innovation—genetics, automation, AI, regenerative design—we can grow more seaweed in Alaska alone than all of China’s current output. That’s not wishful. It’s geography, biology, and policy alignment waiting to happen.
China’s seaweed industry has created jobs and volume. But it’s also generated real harm:
The U.S. doesn’t need to make the same mistakes.
At Blue Evolution, we apply the precautionary principle: grow the right crops, in the right places, in the right way. And solve the right problem for your customer.
This isn’t just about being ethical. It’s about building an industry that can actually last.
Volume:
Alaska alone could conservatively grow 54 million dry tons of kelp annually using current farm area and conservative dry yield assumptions.
U.S. innovation.
Add 20% from other states, and we’re talking 81 million tons/year.
Value per ton:
China’s output averages ~$200–400/ton (dry weight).
U.S. seaweed, developed with quality control, traceability, and value-added applications, can conservatively fetch $600–1,000/ton.
Aggregate impact:
That puts seaweed in the same league as soy, semiconductors, and solar—only cleaner, more distributed, and more regenerative.
This is the moment to treat seaweed like the strategic infrastructure it is. That means:
I’m not here to hype up seaweed. We’ve all seen too much of that already. This isn’t a pitch. It’s a heads-up.
Blue Evolution has been building the long game. We’ve got the IP, the supply chain, the talent, and the partnerships. We’re scaling, and we have rapidly accelerating innovation. But we’re not chasing the unicorn narrative—we’re shaping a real economy story.
If you’ve been waiting for seaweed to move from fringe to foreground, that time just arrived.
So yes: American seaweed just had a big day. And we believe that can be good news for pretty much everyone, everywhere.