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Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
| While their early results are yet to be released, team leader Professor Ermias Kebreab at the University of California, Davis, said their initial experiments were “very surprising and promising”.
“Results are not final, but so far we are seeing substantial emission reductions,” he said.
“This could help California’s dairy farmers meet new methane-emission standards and sustainably produce the dairy products we need to feed the world.”
| Cow digestion relies on millions of microbes in their guts processing and fermenting high-fibre foods.
This process allows the animals to survive on a diet of grass, but it also produces large quantities of methane – a gas responsible for around a quarter of man-made global warming.
Cattle constantly burp and emit the methane being produced in their stomachs. The gas can also be expelled from their rear ends and from manure, but to a lesser extent.
| Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and around a third of the emissions from the sector are thought to come from livestock producing methane.
In an attempt to curb this source, California has introduced regulations calling for dairy farmers to cut methane emissions from their 1.7 million cows by 40 per cent over the next decade.
Achieving this goal will require drastic solutions, and Professor Kebreab thinks seaweed could be one of those solutions.
| https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/cows-seaweed-methane-burps-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climate-change-research-a8368911.html
| Oh my gosh, if we can implement this worldwide we can probably slow down, and with future advances, stop global warming!
Unfortunately, I expect this to become some kind of fancy premium style beef like grass fed. :(
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| >>297166
Seaweed is pretty cheap though, and currently abundant. If it's cheaper than paying fines for emissions, they'll make the switch.
| artificial meat when?
| >>298093 don't forget about paperwork cost and shit like that. Changing the chainnof production also is costly.
| Seewead as a solution for human nutrition? I've heard that before somewhere...
>It's all a big lie! It's not made of seaweed, it's made of people! People must know the truth: Soylent Green is made of people!
| Huh darn, this sounds pretty revolutionary.
But yeah, as >>298354 said. There are probably more cost to it, processing, distribution, change in the market. Farmers might not want to take the risk.
But it could very well work.
| This could singlehandedly pause global warming for a while. I actually got a bit excited I hope this really does go through with all the paperwork.
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Preliminary research has indicated a small amount of marine algae added to cattle food can reduce methane emissions from cattle gut microbes by as much as 99 per cent.
Now, scientists in California are hoping to help farmers meet strict new emissions targets by performing the first ever tests of seaweed feed in live dairy cows.