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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%

#301

Post by concert-gilled »

brianpan wrote: post #38
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.

Perhaps one step further is to bypass even the plants and produce protein directly from CO2! https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/nasas-idea-for-making...

> It's a high-protein, flour-like ingredient that contains 50 percent protein content, 5–10 percent fat, and 20–25 percent carbs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

> Protein poisoning was first noted as a consequence of eating rabbit meat exclusively, hence the term, "rabbit starvation". Rabbit meat is very lean; commercial rabbit meat has 50–100 g dissectable fat per 2 kg (live weight). Based on a carcass yield of 60%, rabbit meat is around 8.3% fat

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

#302

Post by saalweachter »

ianai wrote: post #282
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…

Anecdotally, taking in a little chlorophyll per day dramatically reduces how much gas I produce. So in my experience, it’s at least possible the effect may be large. Worthy of more research.

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

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

#303

Post by [deleted] »

strainer wrote: post #290
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…

"is based on a single study with 12 cows." Its not - most often "skeptical science remarks" although popular, are poorly informed and misleading. A quick scholar search shows numerous studies broadly agreeing with the one featured here, including the seaweeds effects on sheep digestion and microbial and metabolic details: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=asparagopsis+methane

[deleted]

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

#304

Post by [deleted] »

0-_-0 wrote: post #284
DoreenMichele wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad gas corresponds to times when I'm more symptomatic. My condition causes serious gut dysfunction. Bad gassiness is one of many side effects when my gut is a mess. I've spent over eighteen years pursuing dietary and lifestyle changes to mitigate my incurable condition. I have a lot less gas than I used to.

My point is, if your medical condition is causing the gas then reducing gas wouldn't help.

[deleted]

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

#305

Post by benj111 »

leipert wrote: post #235
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…

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…

Thanks for this, I tried to do the calcs but couldn't find all the numbers.

Thb I'm not particularly fazed by the large numbers, we already manage to ship 100 times this for the global herd already. The big question is the economics, if the economic benefits (milk/beef) yield are bigger than the costs it'll take off regardless. If the economics aren't there it may take a bit longer but there aren't many governments worried about sticking their oar into farming matters.

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

#306

Post by zaphod4prez »

saalweachter wrote: post #302
ianai wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, taking in a little chlorophyll per day dramatically reduces how much gas I produce. So in my experience, it’s at least possible the effect may be large. Worthy of more research.

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.

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

#307

Post by dedestruction »

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…

Further food for thought: the lower the statistical power of a study which meets a given significance threshold, the more exaggerated the effect size will be.

So our default posture to evidence like this, even assuming we find it broadly credible, should be that the real-world effect is very likely to be smaller than this, and very unlikely to be larger.

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

#308

Post by [deleted] »

jfindley wrote: post #292
random_savv wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Methane is a gas with a distinct and noticeable smell Methane is odorless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane

Interesting, thank you! I was surprised by this, as it's the major component of natural gas (as used widely for cooking here), and this has a distinct smell. I went looking however, and discovered that's actually because Ethyl Mercaptan is added specifically to make it detectable by humans. I never realised this, and does indeed explain why it's plausible no-one would have noticed such a large effect.

[deleted]

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

#309

Post by Fjolsvith »

pferde wrote: post #179
Fjolsvith wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not have the herd on a surface barge and have an automated system pull seaweed up a conveyor belt to feed them? This would free up the land acreage for human use!

OK, that's 2% of the cows' food intake taken care of. How are you going to supply the other 98% to them, if you have them on a barge, surrounded by water?

Deliver hay by air bale.

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

#310

Post by dsfyu404ed »

giarc wrote: post #295
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Most agricultural colleges/universities have their own farms/herds as well.

I went to a college like that. Most colleges with big ag programs aren't spending big resources on cow emissions. Their flagship researchers that get the money are going to be studying things that are of more immediate importance to the farming industry and farming in general. At present those things are usually along the lines of how to minimize negative impacts and/or leverage the current and future changes in climate.
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