Here's another great weed: Seaweed could reduce cow's methane emissions by 99%steemCreated with Sketch.

in #environment7 years ago

This is a follow-up post to my previous one about deforestation and how can we save the planet earth just by reducing our meat intake.

8460858-3x2-large.jpg

Apparently, a research done by Kinley of CSIRO and De Nys of James Cook University, shows that adding Asparagopsis taxiformis seaweed to a cow's diet could reduce the amount of methane it emits by 99%. In addition, they tried feeding it to sheeps (2% of the total feed) and their methane production drops by 70%. But this is just in a laboratory setting.

They are now testing it with sheeps in Australia and they found out that:

"There was a 60% methane reduction for a 1% diet of seaweed, but a 2% seaweed diet caused a 70% reduction, and a 3% diet caused an 80% reduction," 1

They are expecting better results when they start feeding cows with dried seaweed.

So, just a sprinkle of this particular type of seaweed is enough to reduce cow's methane emissions.

What makes this seaweed diet effective?

Asparagopsis is so effective because it contains a chemical called bromoform (CHBr3) that interferes with the microbial digestive enzymes responsible for methane manufacture.2

In other words, it contains compounds that limit the ability of certain gut microbes, particularly methanogens, to produce methane. It is most likely that the cow would not notice it at all and just be less gassy.

Happier cows = Happier planet

We found the solution!

But wait, why is it not done everywhere already?

Unfortunately, seaweed isn’t a quick fix for our atmospheric methane overdose. We just don’t make enough. Scientists calculate that it would take some 6,000 hectares (about 15,000 acres) of seaweed farms to supply a mere 10% of Australia’s 29 million cattle; to supply America’s 92 million would take over 30x more.3

Even if it is a great idea to harvest seaweed and feed them to cows, there are other concerns to be addressed.

Although 6,000 hectares of seaweed farm seems attainable because there are bigger shrimp farms than that and even though seaweed farming is already a thing, if we try to scale it, it may damage another ecosystem, and we cannot afford that. Moreover, even if we were able to convince the meat industry to pay to add dried seaweed into their animal feed, shipping it to them would still produce carbon emissions.

This is not a sustainable solution, people just need to eat less meat.

Because indeed, not eating meat reduces the emissions by 100%.


FYI: I found out that bromoform is considered a probable carcinogen by the EPA, and is toxic for many other reasons. 3


Upvote, Resteem & Follow me @katsics if you liked this post

Sort:  

Very Good post My Friend.... I found something unique on this & I just Upvoted your post....

Please Follow Me & I Will Do The Same For You....

Please Upvote My post after visit my blog & Upovote this comment if you like.... @supriya1993

Please Upvote This Comment... Thank You Once Again.... @supriya1993

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by katsics from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.

Congratulations @katsics! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of upvotes

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.18
TRX 0.13
JST 0.030
BTC 56704.57
ETH 3000.12
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.20