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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%

#241

Post by Accacin »

siempreb wrote: post #217
Accacin wrote: post #200

Disclaimer: I'm plant-based, and of course biased. What would it take people to realise that eating meat is just not good for the environment and rather than going through all these 'fixes', just stop eating meat? We're getting to the point where we're going to have to sacrifice some 'comforts' IMO.

> just stop eating meat? For most people that's simply not an option. But, if all people were eating just a little less meat, that would be an incredible improvement already. I believe we better fight down the meat problem with small steps, especially by creating more delicious plant based food for the mainstream, creating an alternative that is really hard to resist because it tastes so good.

> For most people that's simply not an option. But, if all people were eating just a little less meat, that would be an incredible improvement already.

Completely agree!

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

#242

Post by lentil_soup »

throwaway3627 wrote: post #174
m0zg wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> you'll give them 2 grand a year to stop eating beef I think the vast majority of people would turn down your offer. There's too little enjoyment in life as it is. Life without steaks and beer is not worth living for most people.

I bet this is unfortunately, uncomfortably true. There are major behavioral changes needed that can't be left to incentives or voluntary changes when survival is at stake. ICEs, meat agriculture, airline travel, unconfined clinker manufacturing and fossil fuel extraction must end if we're to survive this climate emergency. In addition, Be/CCS must happen, such as ferrous ocean seeding and seaweed extraction for conta…

What's ICE, CCS, Be?

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

#243

Post by chiefalchemist »

Let's not forget:

- Producing cows is resource-intensive. Water and feed could be used more effectively elsewhere.

- Consumption of red meat and dairy is generally unhealthy.

- Runoff from cow "pastures" is effectively pollution.

Encouraging less use of cows because of their impact on climate change was a win on a number of levels. Not any more.

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

#244

Post by littlestymaar »

redwall_hp wrote: post #151
littlestymaar wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cows are much better at extracting nutrients from, say, grass than humans are. That's because we human cannot digest grass due to the lack of the proper mictobiote, but most cows in the modern world aren't fed with grass anymore but instead with soy, corn or other kind of high-nutrients food (for which we human are totally equiped to eat).

That just means the inefficiency is in the feed used and the farming practices, not in the animal.

Not really: having an animal in between makes you waste a lot of energy (because the animal only spend a fraction of this energy to build muscles, and the rest is just burned away to sustain its metabolism).

You can take the problem the other way around: the limiting factor is land, and if you have 1 square kilometers of (somewhat fertile) land, you will feed many more humans if you grow potatoes, wheat or rice on the land than if you feed a cow on this land (whether you fees the cow directly with grass or grow corn or soy on it to feed your cows).

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

#245

Post by huntertwo »

pandapower2 wrote: post #39
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.

Hopefully beyond meat and similar companies are able to continue to drive forward their research. I had a Beyond Burger for the first time recently and it was unsettling. The flavor was beef-like but the texture was wrong. I will happily eat either a beef burger or a veggie burger but the Beyond Burger is in the uncanny valley right now.

Try impossible burger I hear it’s way better

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

#246

Post by mklarmann »

There is a similar product made from garlic, that is encapsulated so it just doesn't wash out with the cows saliva, that has a similar effect. You need about 50kg of it per cow, and it kills the methane producing bacteria. Yet the issue (which they no not fully communicate publicly, but one of the lead scientists told me in private), I guess is the same as with the seaweed. It is not all about reducing methane. We need to do a CO2eq calculations, which includes nitrous oxide at a much higher factor.

And there is much more of this GHG coming out of the treated cow. Which almost cancel the methan reduction effect.

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

#248

Post by jkettmann »

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…

Very interesting. This is probably not applicable in areas with melting permafrost, right? Aren't there also bacteria basically digesting ancient and previously frozen organic matter?

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

#249

Post by DennisP »

mklarmann wrote: post #246

There is a similar product made from garlic, that is encapsulated so it just doesn't wash out with the cows saliva, that has a similar effect. You need about 50kg of it per cow, and it kills the methane producing bacteria. Yet the issue (which they no not fully communicate publicly, but one of the lead scientists told me in private), I guess is the same as with the seaweed. It is not all about reducing methane. We ne…

Does the garlic cause methane reduction by the same mechanism as the seaweed?

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

#250

Post by crayola »

reportgunner wrote: post #247

I'm missing an "of something" after the 99%. It might the case that 99% in the title is actually 0.0001% of all cows in the world. It does not make sense to use % without knowing what is the total, the number carries no information whatsoever.

I interpret this as, 'for an individual cow given a diet of that seaweed'. I don't think there's an issue there.
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