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Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

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Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#101

Post by AlanYx »

ars wrote: post #38
kleton wrote: post #2

The active ingredient is bromoform, which might even be cheaper to dose than the raw algae.

Bromoform is incredibly toxic, and possibly even a carcinogen. But if you feed them seaweed then it's suddenly all natural. /s That might be why. But in seriousness, I'm not so OK with feeding animals bromoform or seaweed for that matter if that's a common component.

I agree with you. The EPA classifies it as a Group B2 probable human carcinogen, and it has been shown to cause liver and intestinal tumors in animals.

I wonder if the reason the industry is pushing red seaweed supplementation rather than direct bromoform supplementation is that the latter might require greater evidence of safety (being essentially a medication rather than a foodstuff) before being allowed?

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#102

Post by anonuser123456 »

j-pb wrote: post #6

I guess everything helps, but we put so much effort into the problems with easy solutions, that could be invested into the difficult stuff. Livestock contributes to 15% of all greenhouse gasses. But the solution is easy, cheap, and only midly inconvenient. Going vegan. This has the added benefit of protecting threatened ecosystems in the rainforrest and seas. We could then spend that energy on the difficult stuff. Fa…

>Going vegan.

So not a solution.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#103

Post by j-pb »

LegitShady wrote: post #91
j-pb wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every m2 of top soil you repair with grazing animals, you deforest 10 m2 of rainforest to produce their feed.

What if you don't get your feed from the rainforest? I'm confused with the cause and effect of your statement.

Most crops grown are for livestock.

We grow so much that we've stated to deforest the amazonas for it.

You will never be able to feed mainl seaweed, nor by grazing alone.

The advantage of soil protection from grazing is thus negated by the additional feed production.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#104

Post by jessermeyer »

gambiting wrote: post #61

There is an incredibly important part of this that I feel everyone is missing. The grass eaten by the cows would produce exactly as much methane if it was just left to rot. It's not as if cows somehow produce methane out of grass that would otherwise just....turn into dust? None of those studies take this into account, they all just measure what comes into a cow and what comes out, but no one takes into account the a…

Why is this incredibly important? Is there some huge proportion of unused, rotting feed in the world?

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#105

Post by colechristensen »

gambiting wrote: post #61

There is an incredibly important part of this that I feel everyone is missing. The grass eaten by the cows would produce exactly as much methane if it was just left to rot. It's not as if cows somehow produce methane out of grass that would otherwise just....turn into dust? None of those studies take this into account, they all just measure what comes into a cow and what comes out, but no one takes into account the a…

Honestly, I don’t trust the source. What an animal science professor says off the cuff in an interview is something that should be verified with real data.

The question relies on how much carbon ends up in CO2, CH4, and fixed in the soil between use of what would become cattle feed. Carbon is conserved without a doubt, but how much ends up as gas and which gas is important.

Carbon dioxide doesn’t matter because every bit which ends up in the air had to be taken from the air a short time before to build plant matter. Methane matters because it is a much more potent greenhouse gas and how much gets as methane instead of carbon dioxide makes a difference.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#106

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

etu wrote: post #40
calvinmorrison wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we could all go vegan, skip off our normal diets, a huge change to the world OR china could stop running their very dirty coal plants. Please stop making everything _my_ problem when other countries do not give a rats ass.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/09/chinas-appetit... Do I need to comment?

Fades?

Although China still consumes 28% of the world’s meat, including half of all pork, and boasts a meat market valued at $86bn (£62bn)

That's the second sentence in the second paragraph of the article you linked.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#107

Post by titzer »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #60
j-pb wrote: post #6

I guess everything helps, but we put so much effort into the problems with easy solutions, that could be invested into the difficult stuff. Livestock contributes to 15% of all greenhouse gasses. But the solution is easy, cheap, and only midly inconvenient. Going vegan. This has the added benefit of protecting threatened ecosystems in the rainforrest and seas. We could then spend that energy on the difficult stuff. Fa…

"But the solution is easy, cheap, and only mildly inconvenient. Going Vegan." "But the solution is easy, cheap, and only mildly inconvenient. Ride a bicycle." "But the solution is easy, cheap, and only mildly inconvenient. Live in a solar powered minihome." ""But the solution is easy, cheap, and only mildly inconvenient. Don't reproduce/have kids." "But the solution is easy, cheap, and only mildly inconvenient. No pl…

> PEOPLE are scared, stupid, and crazy. They are lazy, apathetic, ingrained in habit, and tired.

I think we both know where this is going.

Me? I pick up litter. It's time to put lipstick on this pig.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#108

Post by tengbretson »

m000 wrote: post #82
gambiting wrote: post #61

There is an incredibly important part of this that I feel everyone is missing. The grass eaten by the cows would produce exactly as much methane if it was just left to rot. It's not as if cows somehow produce methane out of grass that would otherwise just....turn into dust? None of those studies take this into account, they all just measure what comes into a cow and what comes out, but no one takes into account the a…

> None of those studies take this into account, they all just measure what comes into a cow and what comes out, but no one takes into account the amount of methane produced from the same feed even without cows involved. Nobody's missing anything. That feed wouldn't have been planted in the first place if it weren't for feeding the cows. And that would translate to less deforestation [1]. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/…

Then just buy American beef, which is produced without any deforestation.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#109

Post by tengbretson »

eigenket wrote: post #94
gambiting wrote: post #61

There is an incredibly important part of this that I feel everyone is missing. The grass eaten by the cows would produce exactly as much methane if it was just left to rot. It's not as if cows somehow produce methane out of grass that would otherwise just....turn into dust? None of those studies take this into account, they all just measure what comes into a cow and what comes out, but no one takes into account the a…

This point relies on the assumption that the cattle are out eating grass (or other plants) which would naturally be growing and rotting without human intervention. This is kinda not true. Grazing systems supply about 9 percent of the world's production of beef [1]. 80% of the global soybean crop is used to feed livestock [2]. A lot of these soybeans are grown on land that used to be rainforest. Your comparison should…

Surely its clear that if the soybeans aren't growing in the field that something else that grows, dies and decomposes would be.

Re: Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80% in beef steers

#110

Post by scythe »

zests wrote: post #74

I find this hard to believe. Here is my epistemic estimation: if this were legitimate, it would be huge news. I've been hearing about this for several years now but somehow it never amounts to anything. I would have expected large scale cattle studies by now but I have not seen any of those.

> if this were legitimate, it would be huge news.

The first problem is that cattle account for about ~5% of the emissions from industrialized countries. So it's not actually that high of a priority from a climate standpoint. It's also not the first time that microbial fermentation has been successfully diverted away from methanogenesis; look up "biohydrogen" to find other examples where H2 is the terminal electron carrier instead of CH4 (I assume that happens here; fermentation needs an electron sink). Furthermore, a high proportion of the emissions related to agriculture comprise fertilizer-derived nitrous oxide, which has a longer half-life than methane and is thus more damaging. Further-furthermore, you still have open questions on how this affects long-term health and the rumen microbiome, which simply won't be answered quickly.

The smart money IMHO is on lab-grown meat. I expect seaweed may feature into a future market for ethically sourced fancy cheeses, but is unlikely to affect the market for staple foods.

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