I wonder if it affects the flavor of the milk.
Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
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Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#22So the clarification is "from their burps". What does it do to the greenhouse gas emissions from their farts?
The majority of methane produced by ruminants exits via the mouth. This is because methane is produced by bacteria -- animal cells cannot perform methanogenesis. The big difference between ruminants and humans digestively is:
- in ruminants, bacteria-assisted "fiber digestion" happens before protease-mediated "protein digestion": the rumen precedes the abomasum. (The other two stomachs, the reticulum and omasum, have an unclear function, but appear to essentially be large filters.)
- in other mammals, including most herbivores, bacteria-assisted "fiber digestion" occurs after protease-mediated "protein digestion": the stomach precedes the colon.
So while a human or other primate -- including leaf-eating monkeys -- expels most fermented gas via the anus, a ruminant will expel most of it from its mouth (eructation):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumen#Stratification_and_mixin...
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#23What happens to the molecules that would have become methane: what do they become instead?
Methane is just CH4. I suspect it's not produced anymore on the partial-seaweed diet.
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
A quick search suggests that in fact the 'vast majority' of the emissions are coming out the front, not the back: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/gassy-cows-facts-about-beef...
This makes me wonder if the major source shifts to the back after the treatment.
That would kill the cow. Further down the digestive track can’t really handle volumous gas buildup
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#25Can't a cow just eat what it wants?? Why put it on some superficial diet ?? is it not equal to saying all humans should eat one type of food to reduce global warming ?
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#26Can't a cow just eat what it wants?? Why put it on some superficial diet ?? is it not equal to saying all humans should eat one type of food to reduce global warming ?
Sorry to break it to you, but we force cows to do all sorts of things they'd rather not.
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#27Really interesting, and potentially highly relevant to New Zealand where our many cows and sheep make up about a third of our emissions. Since cows produce quite variable emissions it sounds quite credible that some out of the box thinking like feeding seaweed could actually work in cutting emissions. > ( https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/greenhouse-gases/... ): Measurements of methane emission rates on shee…
this news has made the run once a year since I was in high school
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257589662_Methane_p...
so there's something to it that doesn't add up. either the economics of producing enough algae make it infeasible, or other factors come into play like milk/meat taste or even what to do with pastures if they aren't used for pasturing, it's not like you can grow stuff there.
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#28Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#29Nice, so we should just farm manatees? :)
Joking aside, for the more curious, the article mentions work by Australian scientists exploring the idea in 2015: The red macroalgae Asparagopsis taxiformis is a potent natural antimethanogenic that reduces methane production during in vitro fermentation with rumen fluid
Re: Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps
#30This is a perfect example of why "sin taxes" like the proposed tax on meat[1][2] to fight climate change are a bad idea.
You need to tax the externality (greenhouse gas emissions), not an activity which currently causes such emissions, because then you don't have any incentives left (such as in this case) for industries to reduce those emissions.
1. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/meat-tax...