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Abstract
Excerpts from the report: In 2019, the United States Congress charged the Secretary of Agriculture, in coordination with the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to establish a working group to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of U.S. seaweeds and seagrass farming, describing its current state, its potential to drive economic growth through production of livestock feeds and other commercial applications, and improve ocean health through deacidification. USDA partnered with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (BLOS), a global research institution located in East Boothbay, Maine, for assistance in collecting public input, providing subject matter expertise, and drafting a report to fulfill the Congressional mandate. In accordance with the fiscal year (FY) 2019 U.S. congressional appropriations bill, section 770, this document reports on (1) how kelp and seagrasses could help deacidify the oceans; (2) how emerging ocean farming practices could use seaweeds and seagrasses to provide a feedstock for agriculture and other commercial and industrial seaweeds and seagrasses that study (A) ocean deacidification; (B) the production of a feedstock for agriculture; and (C) how to develop scalable commercial applications to support a blue economy.