A Reading Path Down a Rabbit Hole: Seaweed Women of Rameshwaram

Photo artist Raajadharshini documented the seaweed harvesting vocation developing in southern Tamil Nadu, building a micro-economy empowering women. I have curated articles and resources that showcase the lives and labor of the Rameshwaram seaweed farmers:

Science: The Wire India

Kappaphycus alvarezii is an important source of carrageenans – which are used in a variety of foods, such as a stabilising agent in dairy products. Industrial products like chocolates, ice creams, packaged food, toothpaste and even medicines, to name a few, utilise this jelly-like agent.

BBC

But the discovery of large quantities of dead seaweed deep in ocean-floor sediments has shown that when seaweed dies, much of it is swept out to the ocean, eventually sinking to the seafloor where its carbon is locked-up in sediments. As a result, seaweed cultivation has been identified as a carbon sink that could help mitigate climate change

Amma

AMMACHI Labs is training women in seaside villages in the Rameswaram District in Tamil Nadu…In the last two months, 24 women in the village of Thiruppalaikudi were trained, and they successfully harvested 1290 kgs from their first round of cultivation.