Seagriculture Speaker

About the speaker:

Jessica Chalmers has 25+ years management & leadership experience in education, academic administration, media production, branding, marketing, digital marketing & public relations. She will lead Everything Seaweed as it takes root in Maine and solidifies its place as a processor and route-to-market for global seaweeds. 

Company info: 

Everything Seaweed (EvSe) is a bio-refining startup, sourcing seaweed from Iceland, Maine and Panama and refining it into component molecules: alginate, cellulose and bioactives. We are a no-waste operation, finding markets for every part of the seaweed. As a B2B supplier, we will work with companies to create a variety of value-added products, including alginate-derived products with specific gelling and texturizing properties for food and biodegradable microbeads for cosmetics from seaweed nanofibers. 

Website: everythingseaweed.net 

Presentation:

Everything Seaweed has a plan to advance the aquaculture industry through bio-engineering. EvSe has the potential to have a real economic impact on coastal communities through its manufacturing focus, which supplies a missing link to an industry that has the potential, but not the manufacturing capacity or the markets, to expand and really prosper. In the past decade, the seaweed farming industry has experienced huge growth, partly because lobsterers and shellfishers have seen they can earn extra income in off-seasons. Still, crops do not yield great value because current markets for what is grown are for lower value products (food, horticulture) that do not bring in sufficient profits to support expansion. As a result, many farmers get stuck within supply chains as raw material suppliers at lower fixed rates. With its bio-engineering knowhow and deep knowledge of expanded global markets for seaweed-derived products, EvSe has the potential to create significant value via the manufacture of seaweed nano-fibers as they will provide the base material for a number of higher-value products.