Feeding the world, protecting health, and providing the conveniences of life – that is what we do at FMC. We embrace sustainability as an integral part of this mission and we strive to employ the best technology to cultivate strong partnerships with our stakeholders and find solutions that help improve the lives of our global community.

 

Carrageenan represents some of our best efforts in this area, from the communities that harvest our raw materials to the consumers that enjoy products with carrageenan around the world. This valuable food additive enables processes that extend shelf life without loss of quality and recipes that eliminate the need for refrigeration, reducing both food waste reducing consumption of electricity and fossil fuels.

 

Sustainable aquaculture in action

 

Today, seaweed farming is generally considered to be one of the most environmentally friendly types of aquaculture but this wasn’t always the case. FMC’s commitment to sustainable seaweed harvesting dates back to the 1960s, when Vicente Alvarez helped a team comprised of Professor Maxwell Doty of the University of Hawaii, Marine Colloids Inc. (now part of FMC) and the Philippine government develop new farming techniques for two types of tropical seaweed. Alvarez's goal was sustainable and profitable methods to develop seaweed farming as a viable option for seaside communities across the globe.

Erick Ask, FMC’s manager of seaweed development, was a young protégé of Alvarez while working with the Peace Corps in the late 1980s. Under the tutelage of Alvarez, and ultimately Alvarez’s mentor Professor Maxwell Doty, Erick began a career in seaweed aquaculture, which brought him to FMC. Today, under Erick’s guidance and with the work of thousands of family farmers, FMC sources thousands of dry tons of farmed, tropical seaweed every year.

 

The vast majority of the tropical seaweed FMC sources – 85 percent – is farmed in the Philippines and Indonesia, some by families that Erick Ask and FMC know well. Family-owned farms play an important role in sustaining their coastal communities and FMC is on the ground to make sure that this continues.

Among its farmers, FMC works to encourage that best practices are followed and that the farming is sustainable, for both the people and the natural resources involved. Using Best Farming Practices, farmers can harvest considerably more seaweed over consistent and predictable time periods, and create a reliable, steady income for their families. FMC works to improve the knowledge of farmers with training sessions and general guidance on improved farming techniques based on FMC’s marine agronomy research and development program. These continued efforts have ultimately led to increases in productivity and income for many farmers. In addition to helping enhance the knowledge and technique of farmers in FMC’s supply chain, FMC has worked within communities to develop adjacent projects that improve the ability of seaweed farmers to safely and efficiently harvest their crops. By working with community members, FMC has been able to help local communities implement target improvements.