Scaling U.S. kelp supply through collaborative farmer networks
Lindsay Olsen, Director of Training & Support, GreenWave, USA
Speaker
18 - 20 June 2024
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
Lindsay Olsen, Director of Training & Support, GreenWave, USA
About the speaker:
Lindsay leads GreenWave’s Training and Support program, facilitating in-person and virtual events to connect, train, and support seaweed farmers across North America. In 2022, she led the launch of GreenWave’s Ocean Farming Hub – a free, online teaching tool for prospective and active kelp farmers and hatchery operators – complete with instructional courses, an interactive farm design tool, and an online community forum with over 6,000 global members.
Lindsay grew up commercial fishing for salmon in Alaska. This experience cemented her drive to work towards a sustainable future for our oceans and the people who depend on them. First as a Thomas J. Watson fellow, then later as an experiential educator and academic researcher, Lindsay has lived and worked in coastal communities in South Africa, New Zealand, Indonesia, Norway, and the Faroe Islands.
She holds a B.A. from Williams College and a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment. She lives in Homer, Alaska where she and her family run a small kelp and oyster farm.
Company info:
GreenWave works to replicate and scale regenerative ocean farming–a zero-input, polyculture seaweed and shellfish farming model that breathes life back into our oceans. By leveraging a mix of farmer-forward training and support, climate subsidies, and market development, GreenWave partners with coastal communities across North America to create a blue economy that ensures we can all make a living on a living planet. GreenWave’s goal is to train and support 10,000 farmers by 2030 to catalyze the planting of regenerative ocean crops and yield meaningful economic and climate impacts. GreenWave has been featured in 60 Minutes, CNN, the BBC, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, and is the winner of the 2021 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize.
Presentation:
GreenWave trains and supports kelp farmers across North America. Through online & in person programming, infrastructure improvements, climate subsidies, and targeted regional engagement, GreenWave has built a national network of kelp farmers who learn from and support each other. In this presentation we’ll share our vision for a farmer-forward industry, and show how collaboration up and down the seaweed value chain is critical to catalyzing growth and scaling seaweed supply.