The next health food.(goodnews)(Red Hawaiian seaweed)(Brief Article)

If researchers get their way, a nutritious new health food--red Hawaiian seaweed--may hit the market soon. Until recently, the Japanese harvested the edible seaweed Gracilaria parvispora to make a thickening agent commonly used in Japanese cooking--that is, until the federal government enacted legal protection to save devastated natural seaweed stocks. But now, researchers at the University of Arizona have developed a method of transplanting and cultivating the endangered seaweed. Scientists are providing coral pieces containing starter plants to farmers on Molokai, who hope to grow it in landlocked ...