A while ago, a salty new moneymaking opportunity washed ashore in South Florida just at its beaches were becoming nature’s dumping ground for seaweed.
To change the scene, Miami-Dade Innovation Authority (MDIA) offered bundles of green to any entrepreneurs who could come up with clever ways to remove and recycle that insulting seaweed called sargassum.
MDIA, a nonprofit that connects local government to private technology companies, was looking to bankroll innovative ways to overcome such repulsive scenery by turning seaweed into something tasty to eat, drink or beautify skin.
Thinking this would be perfect for someone like Alissa Miky, an entrepreneur who cares about the environment and people’s health, I reached out to her in Japan.
She’s the founder of Cashi Cake, a sustainable marine plant-based food-tech company that developed innovative ways to create high-quality foods, beverages, alternative packaging, and medical capsules from seaweed.
So, good luck Alissa and other entrepreneurs. If sargassum returns, you’ll now get a whiff of inspiration from the sweet scent of moola in those brown globs of rotten-egg-smelling sargassum. So, dive into your innovative thinktanks and swim to solutions to stop this monstrosity from slimming down one of South Florida’s main attractions—its beautiful beaches.
I call that grotesque, intrusive nuisance sarcasm, which thankfully is on hiatus now, but when it resumes, or sarcastically reblooms in our faces, Miami-Dade wants to turn it into excessive windfalls for some innovative entrepreneurs.
First, they’re going to have to find out if it’s edible for feeding to critters, or burnable for energy, hopefully without any carbon emissions as it’s hot enough already, or make it useful in beauty products, how ironic that would be.
The county, with backing from donors, is dangling big bucks to companies that can bring the best ideas for how to put this abundant repugnant eyesore to good use.
The Authority announced it will pay $100,000 to three startups that can come up with environmentally friendly ways to get rid of all the seaweed that annually piles up repulsively on South Florida’s beaches.
They’re challenging companies globally to create jobs and contribute to the local economy by removing the eyesore from Florida’s otherwise alluring, pristine seashore.
And I wish them speedy good luck as you can guess where Rita and I live. That’s right . . . in a beachfront condo.
Besides a prolific writer and productive PR guy, Tom Madden and his Brazilian wife Rita are avid beach walkers who hated having to step around sargassum when they went for their daily hikes up and down the beach not far from where their PR firm TransMedia Group is headquartered in a totally seaweed free zone in downtown Boca Raton, FL.
