Colleen Francke, owner of Summit Point Seafood in Falmouth, harvests her ocean-grown crop for the Maine Family Seafarm Cooperative, which sells to kelp veggie burger manufacturer Akua. Courtesy of Akua Since Akua’s kelp burgers launched in 2021, the company has sold more than 1 million of the plant-based patties. Made with kelp harvested by the farmers of the Maine Family Seafarm Cooperative, the burgers are sold in roughly 1,000 grocery stores and 200 restaurants nationwide, and, last year, Akua launched mini kelp burgers co-branded with Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants.
The company, based in Cape Cod, is among a growing number of plant-based food manufacturers that are embracing Maine-grown kelp for its nutritional and environmental benefits. “Kelp farming offers this chance to do agriculture right,” said Akua CEO Courtney Boyd Meyers, whose company processes 40,000 pounds of Maine kelp each year and plans to move its burger production to Freeport from Atlanta this summer. “The hamburger is the symbol of everything that’s wrong with the American food system.
A kelp burger is the opposite.” Chef and Portland High graduate Andrew Wilkinson agrees. “Kelp has become the most interesting ingredient I’ve ever worked with,” Wilkinson said.
“It needs no land. It needs no fresh water. It cleans the ocean as it grows.
It needs no pesticides or fertilizers.” The kelp meatballs from North Coast Seafoods in Boston are made with Maine kelp and sold to schools a.
