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Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

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Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#141

Post by thereisnospork »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #134
goodalgae wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mechanism is mostly understood, but not perfectly. Most people know that a cow has multiple stomachs. The second stomach is called a rumen. A cow chews it's cud (essentially big mashes of grass and grain, which a stomach cannot digest). This cud is passed through the first stomach and into the rumen, which contains beneficial, digestive bacteria. The bacteria in the rumen essentially ferment the cud and make comp…

What about creating bromoform directly in a lab? Is that possible? If so, then direct application to the feed wouldnt require en massed sea farming.

Pretty trivial to do at both lab and industrial scales. I've no knowledge of the biology, but if bromoform is the active ingredient it could probably be produced at scale for on the order of a few thousand dollars per tonne(governed primarily by Br2 pricing[0]) then fairly easily doped into pellets or feed.

[0] Maybe less using the haloform reaction. I'm not intimately familiar with the best-industrial manufacturing methods.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#142

Post by jacobolus »

goodalgae wrote: post #105
2_listerine_pls wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the mechanism behind methane reduction?

The mechanism is mostly understood, but not perfectly. Most people know that a cow has multiple stomachs. The second stomach is called a rumen. A cow chews it's cud (essentially big mashes of grass and grain, which a stomach cannot digest). This cud is passed through the first stomach and into the rumen, which contains beneficial, digestive bacteria. The bacteria in the rumen essentially ferment the cud and make comp…

How well do people understand the difference between modern cow diets and the diets of say aurochs? What other nutrients are missing from modern feedlots?

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#143

Post by ssijak »

cc439 wrote: post #100
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an environmental perspective, it's easier to directly consume fruits, vegetables and nuts yourself, rather than have an animal do the same, then eat the animal. That doesn't address the human appetite for animal proteins, but there is beyond meat.

It's easier to consume those things... until winter arrives. Unless you support the massively carbon intensive process of shipping ~80% of each hemisphere's food supply to the other during winter, this isn't viable. Even if that is acceptable, it isn't sustainable.

To add to what the sibiling commenters had said. I was born in the village in part of the world where there are strong 4 seasons. So winters are full (less lately) of snow and bellow 0 celsius. People here store large veraety of vegetables over the winter. Potatoes, pumpkins, onions, garlics and others are stored as is as I remember. Other which could not be stored for long raw are fermented and kept in glass jars, it is called ‘turšija’ here :) Then there are grains and legumes and beans and dried stuff and you can easily thrive on localy sourced food even during winter.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#144

Post by ssijak »

Spooky23 wrote: post #50
HillRat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5% doesn’t solve the problem, but it makes it more tractable. Enough 5% (or 4%, 3%, 2%…) solutions that integrate well into the existing economy, and you get GHG emissions into a range where the complex, expensive, and disruptive (in the traditional sense of the term) game-changing technologies become reasonable. At some point we will end up diverting a sizable percentage of global productivity to either scrubbing CO…

...or you could leave the cows alone and impose some regulatory controls on oil/gas production and yield that reduction in a few months. Big money is hoping to disrupt agriculture by shifting to fake meat substitutes. Shifting to some sort of soy/pea/coconut mix isn’t much better for the earth or human health.

How not? Done some math to share? If all the soy fed to beef is just fed to humans (or convertes back to rainforests in Brazil) we would be in much better shape.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#146

Post by ssijak »

baroffoos wrote: post #47
nightski wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or transportation + electricity which is nearly 60% in the U.S.

And then on the thread where someone proposes reducing transport emissions in the US there will be a comment "But transport in the US is only x% of global emissions" There needs to be action taken on every single one of the sources all at once.

US leadership (dont know how big percent of population is in denial) first needs to accept that there is a human caused global warming and ecological destruction problem. The biggest global polluter is leading in denial also.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#147

Post by DoreenMichele »

rabbitonrails wrote: post #136
tr3ndyBEAR wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If AT can do this for bovines, I wonder what the health benefits for us could be

Reducing methane emissions is not a health benefit.

But it's a proxy for inferring reduced gut distress. So it's not an unreasonable thing to wonder about.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#148

Post by barry-cotter »

sk5t wrote: post #104
jimmaswell wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been to the grocery store much lately, and a Wendy's and McDonald's are within bicycling distance. I'll go to them once or twice a day often nowadays. When I first moved out, eating out so much would have felt like an intolerable budget failure, but I've found myself caring less and less over time. I try to stick to just the burgers, not soda or fries often. The jalapeno bacon fries at Wendy's have been an…

You should probably aim for one visit to Wendy's or McD's a week... or one a month... or one a quarter. What you're doing now is like rationalizing vodka over beer.

This is wrong. A burger is bread, meat and vegetables, maybe with some cheese or another meat. Between carbohydrates, protein and some vegetables an all burger diet is unlikely to lead to any noticeable health effects compared to a normal Western diet. Fries are vastly worse for you than burgers or pizza, whether you’re looking at macronutrients alone or tracking vitamins and minerals as well.

http://www.businesspundit.com/the-mcdonalds-weight-loss-prog...

> A US woman claims to have lost 33 pounds by eating nothing but McDonald's for 90 days.

> Merab Morgan, of Henderson, North Carolina, began her diet because she found the Super Size Me film insulting.

> In the documentary, film maker Morgan Spurlock put on 25lbs after eating excusively at McDonald's for just one month.

> Ms Morgan, 35, memorised the calories in almost every menu item, and limits herself to 1,400 calories a day, reports the Detroit Free Press.

> "It's kind of like the poor man's diet," said Morgan, who has tried Weight Watchers and Atkins but failed because of the time and money those plans required.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#149

Post by muzakthings »

goodalgae wrote: post #26

My company is currently working to grow Asparagopsis Taxiformis, here in the US, for this purpose. I agree with comments that we have big issues to tackle in regards to methane sinks failing, such as permafrost, and there are things to be said about people moving en masse to plant based diets – but, the future will always be a mix of tomorrow and today. Many people will still eat beef, and we need to ensure we reduce…

this is super cool. do you think the primary demand driver for your sales will be 1) gov't mandates, or 2) cattle farmers wanting to differentiate their meat to eco-conscious customers / retailers? just curious about how you see the market.

Re: Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%

#150

Post by r00fus »

solveit wrote: post #135
wwweston wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> early indications in research of some amazing additional benefits – improved milk production, increased immunity, improved food conversion ratio What are the chances the gains here might be on the order where we could stop dosing cattle with antibiotics?

Basically none. We will continue to dose cattle with antibiotics as long as there is additional gain from doing so, regardless of how profitable cattle without antibiotics are.

Or until legislation forces big AG to stop doing it for the sake of everyone else.
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