Corby Kummer: Is Kelp The New Kale?

Food and Farm Maine Seaweed — Wild rockweed grows on the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. While some Maine companies harvest wild seaweed, others are now farming it. Rockweed is used for pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, cosmetics, fertilizers, animal feed and horticultural additives.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

February 18, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday to talk about Sweetgreen adding seaweed to its menus.

"They are starting a new kelp seaweed bowl and they are buying from the Maine-based Atlantic Sea Farm, so it's a great New England story," he said. "It is taking kelp and seaweed years to actually become the fad, but it's a sustainable source of protein and has tons of vitamins and minerals."

Many New Englanders are kelp advocates, Kummer said, since the plant is found in abundance on many eastern coasts.

"Off of Maine, off Long Island, off many coasts in New England, there's this free abundant seaweed that’s now being farmed."

Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.