Touring the Largest Duckweed Site in the World

I spent a good bit of last month in South America, partially for fun (backpacking on Easter Island) but primarily to lead an ILA-sponsored tour, a visit with our good friends from the Argentine social company, MamaGrande. This team of trailblazers, Eduardo Mercovich, Sebastian Cinquini, Pablo Echivarria and teams currently hold the record for the  largest duckweed lagoons in the world.

Salta, Argentina  MamaGrande’s thirty hectare duckweed site

My colleagues and I learned about MamaGrande’s state of R@D, visited their labs, and toured several lagoons, the above being the largest-thirty hectares. Emotions surfaced as I walked the levees between raceways; awe, fascination and mostly joy.  Duckweed is beginning to really happen on a large scale!  I gazed across the expanse of amazingly green water surface and black tarps that was pure geometric art, envisioning tens of thousands of similar lagoons around the world.

The duckweed from this wastewater treatment setting is being developed for conversion to bioplastics however it can be grown on many nutrient sources and used for a wide variety of applications. The chief emerging market where duckweed is expected to play strongly is in the alternative protein industry, similarly to pea, whey, and soy isolates.