101–110 of 152 posts
Lab-cultured meat is fast becoming cheaper and safer than growing subsidized crops (and all the water, diesel fuel and fertilizer that entails) and slaughtering an actual animal risking vCJD. Skip most of the climate change, animal cruelty and customer risks by growing something far more ethical and responsible.
Cows fart methane even if they are just fed for milk. I'd rather have cow from milk than a synthetic substitute.
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Wouldn't it be better/cheaper just to make and feed the cows some bromoform ?
It's an ozone-depletant, so you want a natural source. And algae naturally soak it up from sea water, so you don't have to extract it from minerals or anything like that. Plus I assume that it being part of the plant matters slows its release.
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Not the OP, but the typical conclusion would be "effective altruism indicates I should stay in tech and give money to helping fisherman transition to seaweed farming." It's very hard to pass this analysis, since "high tech" is almost universally more valuable to humanity, per unit, that something low tech like farming. If you're already in tech and you want to "help the world", giving money is almost always the best…
Agriculture is not "low-tech".
There probably isn't an incentive to reduce methane emissions for farmers right now though, right? We'd have to pass regulations mandating a reduction, or an emissions tax or something.
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US does the same actually. $.05 tax on all bottles, $0.05 payment for recycling. It used to get people to recycle but now the penalty is too small to be worth it. On the flip side, rooting through garbage cans for recycling deposits is now a viable source of income for urban poor.
On the other other hand, we're essentially paying urban poor to empty cans and strew garbage over the sidewalk.
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Note that this study is about "in vitro" analysis. High iodine contents and toxic compounds might make this algae not suitable as bovine fodder. Furthermore this is tropical algae and it traditionally hand harvested making it very expensive to produce. I don't know if it could be mass produced in sea farms. Source: http://uses.plantnet-project.org/en/Asparagopsis_taxiformis_...
At first I was confused... thanks for pointing out that this study is totally impractical. Cattle, like most ruminants, rely on the fermentation of cellulose for most of their energy needs. Any feed additive that shuts down this process will result in malnourished cattle, and is unlikely to see broad adoption in the industry. Luckily for the PEI farmer, the seaweed he used didn't have this effect.
I.e. shutting down the methanogenesis does not shut down all fermentation, it just takes other pathways. It is not an essential component.
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OP here. Your assuming I'd stay in tech to arbitrage the wage gap to give altruistically. You discount that maybe working in tech isn't what makes me happy (disclaimer: I like my current gig because of the people I get to work with, but nothing is forever), farming seaweed from my 41 foot catamaran (now depreciable as a business expense if commercially farming seaweed) might make me happier after working in tech for…
could you tell me more about using a boat for seaweed farming?
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What were the conclusions of your research?
Not the OP, but the typical conclusion would be "effective altruism indicates I should stay in tech and give money to helping fisherman transition to seaweed farming." It's very hard to pass this analysis, since "high tech" is almost universally more valuable to humanity, per unit, that something low tech like farming. If you're already in tech and you want to "help the world", giving money is almost always the best…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not the OP, but the typical conclusion would be "effective altruism indicates I should stay in tech and give money to helping fisherman transition to seaweed farming." It's very hard to pass this analysis, since "high tech" is almost universally more valuable to humanity, per unit, that something low tech like farming. If you're already in tech and you want to "help the world", giving money is almost always the best…
OP here. Your assuming I'd stay in tech to arbitrage the wage gap to give altruistically. You discount that maybe working in tech isn't what makes me happy (disclaimer: I like my current gig because of the people I get to work with, but nothing is forever), farming seaweed from my 41 foot catamaran (now depreciable as a business expense if commercially farming seaweed) might make me happier after working in tech for…