Tassie seaweed success Sea Forest in the shortlist for Prince William’s $1.9 million EarthShot

Australian agricultural seaweed startup Sea Forest has been nominated for a 2023 EarthShot Prize, a program launched by Prince William and David Attenborough with the intention of supercharging ideas that could solve major environmental challenges.

Sea Forest is one of nine companies to hold a commercial license to produce FutureFeed, a CSIRO-backed livestock feed ingredient derived from the asparagopsis seaweed.

Promising studies show that when added to the diets of ruminant livestock like cows and sheep, the asparagopsis compound is capable of significantly reducing the methane emissions released by those animals.

The upshot is significant: methane is a major component of greenhouse gas emissions, and the farming sector is liable for an estimated 15% of methane artificially pushed into the Earth’s atmosphere.