By Nadra Nittle @ huffingtonpost.com.au
When Albert Straus started running the family dairy farm in the 1990s, he converted it to organic, turning it into the first certified organic dairy farm west of the Mississippi River. He aims for Straus Dairy Farm and Creamery in Marshall, California, to be carbon neutral by the end of next year. To limit the farm’s other greenhouse gas emissions, he uses an anaerobic digester to capture the methane from manure and convert it to energy. Next, he hopes to tackle another main source of methane: his cows’ burps.
“Cows are essential to reversing climate change,” Straus said.
The global livestock sector accounts for 14.5% of man-made greenhouse gases, more than all of the world’s automobiles, the United Nations has reported. Of that, nearly 40% is methane gas produced by digestion in cattle. The rumen, the first of four parts of a cow’s stomach, contains bacteria that ferment the high-fiber grass, hay and grains they eat. During this process, a combination of gases forms methane, which the animals emit mostly by burping and exhaling, but also in their flatulence and manure.
Perhaps the most promising solution for reducing bovines’ release of this powerful planet-warming gas? Feeding cows seaweed.
The red seaweed species formally known as Asparagopsis taxiformis is a “complete game changer,” according to Ermias Kebreab, associate dean for global engagement in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis. In July, preliminary results from the latest study that Kebreab co-authored on the algae found that it reduces intestinal methane production in beef steers by more than 80% when added to their feed. Other research found reductions of up to 98%, without adverse effects on the cows’ weight or the quality of beef produced.
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