Across the world, farmers live between floods and droughts. The ground drinks too fast, then cracks too soon. As climate patterns grow more erratic, the balance between water and soil has never been more fragile.
At the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, a team of designers, chemists, and engineers has been working on a material called AquaSteady—a hydrogel made from seaweed that could change how the world grows food. The idea is deceptively simple: take a substance nature already designed to hold water, and use it to help soil do the same.
“AquaSteady is made from kelp,” explains project lead Cindy KEHLET. “It absorbs water and releases it again when needed. Using a natural hydrogel is much better for the environment.”
That kelp, grown along Long Island’s coast, can stretch from a millimetre to twelve feet in just a few months—sequestering nitrogen and carbon as it grows. Once processed, the seaweed’s alginate structure becomes a biodegradable hydrogel that can retain up to 300 times its weight in water.
With support from the National Science Foundation, the team began field trials across three continents: New Mexico, Brazil, and New York State. Each site offered a different challenge—heat, drought, poor soil—and each told the same story.
“I’ve grown vegetables for over twenty years,I couldn’t believe it. The soil stayed wet. I went from watering three times a day to once.”
In Brazil, orange saplings treated with AquaSteady survived 45 days without water and grew 27% taller than untreated plants. Across the trials, soils retained moisture longer, reduced dust, and even held nutrients more effectively.
John Idowu, Extension Agronomy Specialist at New Mexico State University, notes another benefit: stability. “When we applied AquaSteady, the soil held its moisture after eight weeks compared to the control soil. It’s not just about water—it’s about keeping the soil alive.”
From Brooklyn to Brazil, the project represents a quiet revolution in climate adaptation: a collaboration between agriculture and aquaculture. By turning seaweed into soil technology, the team is redefining what it means to farm sustainably.
“AquaSteady isn’t a cure for drought, It’s a bridge—a way to give the land time to recover.”
In a century defined by scarcity, AquaSteady shows that the answers we need may already be growing in the ocean.
