Kelp Grows Half a Metre a Day. Why Don't We Eat It?

Giant kelp can grow up to half a metre in a single day, with no soil, no fresh water and no fertilizer. People were already using seaweed as food around 14,000 years ago at Monte Verde in Chile, and yet for most of us it never reaches the plate. Most people assume it tastes awful or is unsafe. That is not quite right, and the real answer has nothing to do with taste. You will see how the British botanist Kathleen Drew-Baker solved the mystery of nori in 1949, why Japan makes roughly 6 to 7 billion nori sheets a year, how Scottish and Irish kelp was burned for soda in the 1700s and led to the discovery of iodine in 1811, and why the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849 gave seaweed a stigma. Global farming is about 36 million tonnes a year, and where a figure is an estimate or differs by source, the video says so. If you like food questions explained simply, subscribe to Darnlo for more. #Kelp #Seaweed #Darnlo