In April 2022, GreenWave launched the Regenerative Ocean Farming Hub: an open-source platform designed to train, support, and connect seaweed farmers across North America and around the world. In this free-to-anyone digital space, beginning kelp farmers can find curricula and interactive tools to support them throughout planning, permitting, designing, and deploying their farms; as well as how-to videos and lessons on outplanting, monitoring, harvesting, and selling their commercial crops. The real magic, though, is the broader community of farmers this Hub supports. The Hub is designed to encourage collaboration and knowledge exchange across the seaweed industry. In an online community forum, beginning and advanced farmers alike can ask questions of one another, forge connections, and share innovations and updates coming off their farms. In less than a year, the Hub has attracted a global audience of over 3,000 users.
In this presentation, we’ll give a tour of the Hub, share examples of our training curriculum, and show how experienced farmers, scientists, and industry experts have used the platform to directly connect with and support active ocean farmers. Additionally, we’ll show how GreenWave’s broader training & support programming builds off the Hub curriculum to support new and active farmers. We’ll share highlights from our guided 6-week learning journey, How to Start a Kelp Farm, where a cohort of aspiring kelp farmers worked through course material, assignments, and attended weekly live sessions with guest experts. Lastly, we’ll introduce GreenWave’s Farmer Forum, a monthly series of technical conversations and in-person gatherings on seasonally-relevant topics, designed to facilitate connections and community among active farmers. We’ll make the case that collaboration — more than competition — will propel the industry forward, and invite members of the broader aquaculture community to join in the movement.