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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%

#311

Post by bvinc »

alphakappa wrote: post #3

There are many planet saving discoveries like these. There's also a catch, which is why the planet hasn't been saved yet. > “If we’re able to work out how to scale up the seaweed to such a level to that can feed all of the cows and the sheep and the goats around the world, then it’s going to have a huge impact on the climate; And there you go. That's the hard part that you cannot just hand-wave away. You also have to…

If there was a profit motive, and it wasn't free to emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, I bet we would figure it out.

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

#312

Post by asciimo »

shlant wrote: post #276
leipert wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the feasibility of this, deploying it on a large scale? I did some quick calculations on a napkin. Apparently there are between 1 billion and 1.5 billion cows [0][1]. Let’s just say 1.5 Billion. In New Zealand the beef (dry cow) vs dairy cow ratio is almost 1:1 [2], but I assume that countries like India have more dairy cows, so I just assumed that 60% percent of cows are dairy cows. Apparently dry cows consu…

it certainly seems like a farfetched bandaid for a very inefficient food source (no matter how you view it)

Definitely. We'll never harvest more than 10% of the energy we feed livestock. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_level

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

#313

Post by snak »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #18
alphakappa wrote: post #3

There are many planet saving discoveries like these. There's also a catch, which is why the planet hasn't been saved yet. > “If we’re able to work out how to scale up the seaweed to such a level to that can feed all of the cows and the sheep and the goats around the world, then it’s going to have a huge impact on the climate; And there you go. That's the hard part that you cannot just hand-wave away. You also have to…

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.

That's an interesting way to put it into words. In paper sounds like a really unefficient pipeline (vegetables -> animals -> humans).

Thanks for that, made me reflect on how stupid it sounds but how common it is.

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

#314

Post by ianai »

zaphod4prez wrote: post #306
saalweachter wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't cows already eat quite a bit of chlorophyll?

Grass fed cows but the vast majority of cows are fed primarily or exclusively grain, not grass/hay.

I’m talking about chlorophyll extract specifically so it’d be in addition to the normal dietary chlorophyll as well.

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

#315

Post by rywils21 »

zaphod4prez wrote: post #306
saalweachter wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't cows already eat quite a bit of chlorophyll?

Grass fed cows but the vast majority of cows are fed primarily or exclusively grain, not grass/hay.

> "It contains chemicals that reduce the microbes in the cows’ stomachs that cause them to burp when they eat grass."

Apparently, they are comparing this to eating grass. I'm a little skeptical of that statement, though. Grass-fed vs. grain-fed have wildly different outcomes for the health of the animal.

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

#316

Post by peterwwillis »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #273
hannob wrote: post #172

Skeptical science remark: This whole "if cows eat seaweed that'll vastly reduce their carbon footprint" is based on a single study with 12 cows. If you take into consideration that especially small, never replicated studies often don't hold up to scrunity the next thing to do is not to ask how to produce the seaweed. The next reasonable step would be to try to replicate this study in a larger sample (and probably als…

Yup. There's plenty of boutique dairy farms within easy driving distance of rich colleges in the northeast (some of whom already have existing relationships with said colleges). I'm sure anyone who seriously wants to replicate the study would be able to find a farmer that will work with then to get an n value of a few hundred. It's not like you have to go somewhere remote to study cow farts.

> cow farts

burps, fwiw

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

#317

Post by reportgunner »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #251
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.

From the article: > Even a small amount of the seaweed in a cow’s diet was shown to reduce the animal’s gases by 99%. and > When added to cow feed at less than 2% of the dry matter, this particular seaweed completely knocks out methane production. It contains chemicals that reduce the microbes in the cows’ stomachs that cause them to burp when they eat grass The 99% is relating to the gases emitted by a cow eating th…

> Even a small amount of the seaweed in a cow’s diet was shown to reduce the animal’s gases by 99%.

So if the cow eats seaweed it will also reduce any other gases produced by said cow ? does this apply worldwide or to cows in a specific area ? How about other animals that produce methane, is this applicable to them too ?

> When added to cow feed at less than 2% of the dry matter, this particular seaweed completely knocks out methane production. It contains chemicals that educe the microbes in the cows’ stomachs that cause them to burp when they eat grass

Is reducing these microbes healthy for the cow ? Won't it lead to shortening life span of a cow and therefore leading to requiring more cows ?

> if Australia could grow enough of the seaweed for every cow in the nation, the country could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10%.

Does this mean methane gas from cows represent 10.1% of greenhouse gas emissions of the country ? (i.e. reduced by 99% from 10.1% to 0.1% ?) How does the seaweed get to the cows ? Wouldn't this mean more dependency on trucks to bring the seaweed to the cows ?

And the million dollar question - how many % of the world's methane gas production does Australia represent ?

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

#318

Post by stronglikedan »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #243

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.

> Consumption of red meat and dairy is generally unhealthy.

That could be said about anything. Everything is generally unhealthy if done in excess. Moderate amounts of red meat and dairy is fine (and delicious).

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

#319

Post by eMSF »

sc4les wrote: post #220
rimliu wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure that growing rice requires land, water, and transport. And I do not think cows eat human food nor humans would be very pleased to eat what cows eat.

What cows eat? Ah you mean soy. Nah we can’t use that. Would be a shame if the cow used 10x the amount of calories to grow before we eat it when we could eat the crops instead and make your comment look uninformed

How could I truthfully mean soy by "what cows eat", when around here, soy only makes up 1-2% of cattle feed.

You're cutting all the corners available by adding up the fact that you've heard soy being fed to cattle to them only eating soy.

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

#320

Post by VBprogrammer »

icxa wrote: post #286
jfindley wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excessively large effect sizes are a warning sign in and of themselves. A good article on this is here: [0] -- simply if the effect is too huge, it becomes incumbent on the researcher to explain why no-one has noticed this before. Methane is a gas with a distinct and noticeable smell. Seaweed is plentiful in many places cows are kept. If the effect was really as dramatic as claimed you'd expect that it'd be well know…

> "it becomes incumbent on the researcher to explain why no-one has noticed this before" Farmer: huh, we'll I'll be damned. Who in the hell woulda thought to feed them seaweed."

If I'm not mistaken the original inspiration for this research was precisely that farmers noticed their cattle (or perhaps it was sheep) were happier when allowed to graze in fields which happened to be along the shore, allowing them to naturally eat quantities of sea weed.
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