Growing vegetables in seawater could be the answer to feeding billions

Food production needs to increase by 70 per cent in the next 30 years to feed a world population expected to reach 9 billion people, according to a study.

However, traditional agriculture is facing increasing scarcity of water due to climate change. Freshwater - what we all drink, wash and cook with - accounts for only 2 per cent of all water on Earth, and we don’t even have access to most of it because it is locked away in glaciers.

In many areas, such as the Sub-Saharan region and the Sub-Indian continent, water is seriously scarce or heavily contaminated.

Even regions famous for their wet weather, such as the UK, are facing droughts due to low rainfall and increased water usage. In 2020, the UK saw only half of the average rainfall it would usually expect. According to the UK Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, that spring was the fourth driest ever recorded and the driest spring on record in many regions of England and Wales.

That’s why a farm on Scotland's West Coast is using the Atlantic Ocean to grow vegetables instead. 

Led by Glasgow-based startup Seawater Solutions they are using saltwater instead of fresh to grow food.

“We take this land, whether it’s degraded farmland or flooding-affected lands, and we then build an artificial saltmarsh ecosystem where we can extract food at the same time,” Yanik Nyberg, founder of Seawater Solutions, tells Euronews Green.

“We’ll pump seawater over this area, sometimes we flood it, and then we’ll begin to grow saline plants.”

These crops, called halophytes, thrive in waters with a high percentage of salt such as semi-deserts and seashores. 

Halophytes can be eaten or used as raw material for cosmetics, biofuels and sea-plant animal fodder. The salt marshes where they grow protect the