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Ancient Use of Seaweed as food: Seaweeds have been harvested for food, fertilizer, and medicine for thousands of years. History books record that the Chinese used seaweed for medicinal purposes as early as 3000 B.C. One of the earliest records, the Chinese Book of Poetry, indicates that sea vegetables were a prized food as far back as the time of Confucius (551-479 B.C.). In ancient China seaweed was served to important guests even including kings. In China a book was written about seaweed by Chi Han in the year 300 BC and Kelp has been used as food since the 5th century.
Japan has a long history of seaweed use. As a mountainous island nation with little arable land, its national cuisine has always emphasized the abundance of foods from the sea. Seaweed was first consumed as food, in Japan, about 2000 years ago, according to early written records. It is recorded that in Japan, as early as 800 A.D., 6 types of seaweeds were included in the common diet. Dried sheets of seaweed, called nori, were produced in Japan as early as 794 A.D. Up until the Middle Ages seaweed was not cultivated which limited it as a food source. Sometime during the 17th century, Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa ordered the fishermen of the small village of Shinagawa to bring him fresh fish daily. As a consequence the fishermen started a fish farm. They built a fence just offshore to hold the live fish, however they discovered that the seaweed grew quite easily on this fence. This is said to be the origins of seaweed aquaculture.
Seaweed has been used for many years to replenish the soil and promote plant growth in Europe and Great Britain, as well as other coastal countries. In Europe seaweed was used as an herbal medicine and as early as 100 B.C. the Greeks collected and imported seaweed from the Mediterranean coast.
Red Algae was used to treat parasitic worms since pre-Christian times. One translated text, written in 46 B.C., states, "The Greeks collected seaweed from the shore and having washed it in fresh water, gave it to their cattle." In Iceland, where people have eaten seaweed for centuries, the oldest law book refers to the "rights and concessions involved before one might collect and/or eat fresh sol (seaweed) on a neighbor's land." |
