Seaweeds enjoy a rich history as human foodstuff for populations around the world. The omnipresence of seaweeds in all climate belts, the great biodiversity, their bounty of important nutrients, combined with the fact that most seaweeds are edible, suggest that seaweeds have played an important role as human food during human evolution. Seaweeds have served as a cheap and easily accessible crop in the daily fare for coastal populations. In many food cultures, in particular in Southeast Asia, seaweeds have for millennia been considered as valuable sea vegetables. In recent years, regional seaweed cuisines around the world have been rediscovered and reinvigorated, and many chefs up to the top level have initiated, often in collaboration with scientists, a trend towards a new seaweed gastronomy (phycogastronomy).

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Seaweeds (macroalgae) are, together with microalgae, main contributors to the Earth’s production of organic matter and atmospheric oxygen as well as fixation of carbon dioxide. In addition, they contain a bounty of fibres and minerals, as well as macro- and micronutrients that can serve both technical and medicinal purposes, as well as be a healthy and nutritious food for humans and animals. It is therefore natural that seaweeds and humans have had a myriad of interwoven relationships both on evolutionary timescales as well as in recent millennia and centuries all the way into the Anthropocene. It is no wonder that seaweeds have also entered and served as a saviour for humankind around the globe in many periods of severe needs and crises. Indeed, they have sometimes been the last resort, be it during times of famine, warfare, outbreak of diseases, nuclear accidents, or as components of securing the fabric of social stability. The present topical review presents testimony from the history of human interaction with seaweeds to the way humankind has, over and over again, been ‘saved by seaweeds’. It remains a historical fact that in extreme conditions, such as shortage and wars, humans have turned to seaweeds in times of ‘needs must’ and created new opportunities for their uses in order to mitigate disasters. Lessons to be learned from this history can be used as reminders and inspiration, and as a guide as how to turn to seaweeds in current and inevitable, future times of crises, not least for the present needs of how to deal with changing climates and the pressing challenges of sustainable and healthy eating.