The Nightly On … Tomorrow: Sea Forest founder | Australian Markets
Sam Elsom is one of the few people who can confidently say their values and their profession are in lockstep.
The Sea Forest founder’s work harnessing the carbon-capturing energy of seaweed over the previous seven years has garnered worldwide consideration and launched him into the higher echelons of worldwide climate advocates.
A documentary with Zac Efron, a go to from former US ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, a finalist in Prince William’s Earthshot prize, GQ’s Social Force for 2024, and the 2025 Australian of the Year for Tasmania — the alternatives and accolades have come thick and fast.
Complete with a roguish manbun and presidential beard, Elsom has turn into a mascot for Australia’s maligned climate-defending industry.
“Our measure of success will really be through our impact,” Elsom says.
“I don’t think anyone that receives those types of awards would say that’s why they do it. We’ve got a job to do, and I hope that it makes it easier for us to fulfil that.
“On the flip side, it’s been incredibly exciting to be having meetings with Prince William in Kensington Palace, having Caroline Kennedy come down and visit us, or Zac Efron film on our farm. All these bizarre things that have happened over the time that we’ve been doing this. So I’m grateful.”
Already energetic within the world of sustainable fashion, Elsom launched Sea Forest in 2018 spurred by the alarming findings of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The long and detailed doc printed each 5 to seven years by the United Nations retains monitor of the planet’s progress, or lack thereof, in addressing climate change.
It was a presentation of this report delivered by 2007 Australian of the Year Professor Tim Flannery that Elsom pins as his inspiration for beginning the business.
But as a lifelong nature lover with “environmental leanings” it didn’t take an excessive amount of of a push.
“Tim Flannery has been an inspiration . . . when it comes to climate change, but also to know that there are solutions. It’s actually because of Tim that I started to pursue seaweed.”
The curiosity in algae and its potential to sequester carbon dioxide has culminated in SeaFeed, a cattle feed additive made out of considerable purple seaweed cultivated at a specialised Sea Forest facility on the east coast of Tasmania.
Sea Forest claims a small dose of the additive alongside regular feed reduces the methane emissions a cow produces.
The 2024 Global Methane Budget report contributed to by CSIRO referred to as out agriculture as a larger contributor to world methane emissions than the fossil fuel industry.
CSIRO’s government director for the Global Carbon Project Pep Canadell refers to it as a “short-lived” greenhouse gasoline. Its atmosphere-warming results happen within 20 years, making it a “good target for fast mitigation of global warming”.
It’s been extremely thrilling to be having conferences with Prince William in Kensington Palace, having Caroline Kennedy come down and go to us, or Zac Efron movie on our farm. All these weird issues which have occurred over the time that we’ve been doing this. So I’m grateful.
According to the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, some methane-inhibiting feed has been proven to cut back cattle’s methane emissions by more than 80 per cent, below splendid situations.
“I think we’ve moved past the fact that we can plant our way out of this with trees, for example,” Elsom says.
“We need a range of solutions.
“The work of Sea Forest to reduce median emissions in livestock with very limited or minimal behavioural change (is) really important because it means that for a farmer, for example, they’re not having to completely change practice, or stop farming cattle altogether in the face of climate change, which would be even more disruptive.”
But getting farmers to latch on to the product has not been simple, and that has made gross sales and business growth robust for Sea Forest.
“The headwinds are there because there is a cost associated with doing this and there’s no reward for farmers, who, if I’m honest, are also under quite a lot of pressure, particularly when you think about the cost of living . . . and the fact that farmers are not necessarily appreciated through the supply chain.”
The Federal Government’s current choice to exclude seaweed feed from the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme has additionally not helped.
Had it been included, farmers might have hypothetically marketed or bought the “saved” emissions from their operations to organisations seeking to offset their environmental impacts.
The concept is that would offer a financial and environmental incentive for cattle farmers to take up the product.
That choice is a source of frustration for Elsom who, alongside along with his crew of 50, has spent years proving that SeaFeed can scale back emissions and getting the product to a industrial scale.
“On one side, we’ve made all of this incredible progress,” he says.
“But yet at the same time, many people are indifferent when it comes to climate change. It’s a lot of headwind, and that’s been probably for me the most heartbreaking part of Sea Forest.
“We’ve upheld our end of the deal, we built the solution. We’ve made it commercially viable. We’ve got it to significant commercial scale, but yet we can’t seem to get a lot of support from the Government in terms of policies that would reward farmers.”
Sea Forest has needed to concentrate on further income streams and getting the product into provide chains of giant organisations with scope three emission-reduction targets to satisfy.
It lately signed a deal with main UK grocery store Morrisons geared toward fast-tracking manufacturing of decrease carbon beef merchandise.
Sea Forest additionally has a low-emissions milk product, named Eco-Milk, with Tasmania’s Ashgrove Cheese. A SeaFeed lick block for cattle was additionally launched final 12 months.
Elsom’s efforts come during a polarising period for climate change commitments, and are ostensibly pulling in opposition to the extremely influential opposing forces of the US below the management of President Donald Trump, who lately withdrew from worldwide climate treaty the Paris Agreement, and referred to as a halt on financing emission-reduction efforts in developing nations, simply weeks after returning to the Oval Office.
And in Australia, voters within the imminent 2025 Federal election are more involved in regards to the hip-pocket situation of cost-of-living pressures than an existential menace corresponding to climate change.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has opened the door for the Coalition to stroll away from a goal set by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2022 to cut back Australia’s emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.
For Elsom and the crew at Sea Forest, they view their trigger as one far better than a political situation of the second.
“I’m a father. I’ve got two kids. I care deeply about the future that they will have and their children will have,” he says.
“We’ve been told and warned that we are in a decisive decade. We’ve got five years until 2030 and the goal is to halve emissions. Now that’s a difficult task, but it’s a question (of) how do you want to be remembered in this moment?
“And I would like to be remembered as someone who gave it everything I had to try and at least contribute towards meeting that goal.”
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