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How eating seaweed can help cows to belch less methane - Printable Version

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How eating seaweed can help cows to belch less methane - C C - Jul 15, 2018

https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-eating-seaweed-can-help-cows-to-belch-less-methane

EXCERPT: . . . The UC Davis study will contribute to a global store of knowledge on how to limit the methane produced by “enteric fermentation” — the digestive process in a ruminant’s upper stomach chamber, or rumen, where microbes predigest fiber and starch, releasing gases when they belch and exhale. It’s “one of a handful of options in various stages of development that seem to have the potential to reduce [enteric] methane by 30 percent or more,” says Ryan McCarthy, science advisor to the Air Resources Board.

Kebreab’s experiments with seaweed additives to cattle feed have now surpassed that 30-percent figure, with one type of seaweed slashing enteric methane by more than 50 percent. In the fight to slow climate change, such reductions are no small matter: In the United States alone, domestic livestock — including cattle, sheep, goats, and buffalo — contribute 36 percent of the methane humans cause to be put into the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency....

MORE: https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-eating-seaweed-can-help-cows-to-belch-less-methane


RE: How eating seaweed can help cows to belch less methane - Yazata - Jul 22, 2018

Except that transporting the seaweed from coastal areas to where the cattle are will produce gasses. And growing and harvesting seaweed will probably be a lot more expensive than alternative feed.

It doesn't sound practical to me.