Sugar kelp has enormous potential to improve the health of local marine waters. Credit: Lazy Point Farms

Contacts: 

Wendy Moore, Executive Director, Lazy Point Farms, E: kelp@mooregood.org

Michael Ciaramella, NYSG Seafood Safety & Technology Specialist, P: 631-632-8730, E: mc2544@cornell.edu


Stony Brook, NY, May 10, 2022 – Lazy Point Farms has partnered with individuals and institutions across Long Island to grow and harvest the seaweed, sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima), in water bodies on the north and south shores of Long Island to kick start a self-sustaining and local kelp industry. Through a focus on food safety, improved cultivation practices, local nursery development, and processing, sugar kelp will soon be available free of charge to organizations and businesses who wish to experiment with this new local crop.

As a nonprofit organization, Lazy Point Farms is grounded in the idea that partnerships with environmental nonprofits, educational institutions, and the private sector to bootstrap the industry is critical to the long-term success of New York’s growing industry. 

“The expertise is already here,” said Lazy Point Farms Executive Director Wendy Moore. “There is a growing kelp community that will build this emerging sector. We created Lazy Point Farms to serve as the connective link among the public and private sectors, the research and educational institutions, and the business and environmental organizations that want to see it grow. We create opportunities so that everyone involved can move forward.”

This past season, Lazy Point Farms partnered with fifteen growers that included oyster farmers, two environmental organizations, a garden club, four nurseries, three universities, two food centers, NY Sea Grant, and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Kelp has enormous potential to improve the health of local marine waters. "We are excited to partner with Lazy Point Farms and their growers to explore the potential of kelp as a new food product for our region," said Kate Fullam, Executive Director of East End Food Institute. "Kelp is more than just fertilizer or food. It has the potential to make a significant positive impact on our economy and environmental health as well." 

Lazy Point Farms and its partners see seaweed aquaculture as a sustainable way to nourish the community and develop a local industry along the way. One example is the progress that’s been made with New York Sea Grant. “Since the initiation of New York Sea Grant’s Seaweed Processing and Marketing Task Force in 2021, New York Sea Grant has been actively working with local, regional, and national partners like Lazy Point Farms to provide resources and technical assistance for the emerging seaweed industry on Long Island,” said Michael Ciaramella, Seafood Specialist at New York Sea Grant.

Thanks to a team of food safety experts and growers, Lazy Point Farms will be able to distribute this year's harvest in several forms to help local businesses investigate its potential for both food and non-food uses. “We had spent many years spinning our wheels in the mud while trying to ignite the small business community needed to drive the kelp farming movement forward in New York, and progress had been steady - but slow - for a long time,” said Sean Barrett, cofounder of The Montauk Seaweed Supply Company. “Since partnering with the Moore Foundation last year our project, and the entire fledgling industry here, have taken off as if we were suddenly strapped to a rocketship.” Sugar kelp is widely used as a food and soil amendment and has also shown promise as a potential substitute for synthetic fibers and plastic packaging.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, University at Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island; at Brooklyn College, with New York City Department of Environmental Protection in Queens and at Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Elmsford and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.