Feeding Cows Seaweed Could Cut Methane Emissions and Diversify Maine’s Coastal Economy, but Can It Scale?
There are still hurdles to overcome, but growing the seaweed industry in a state known for lobster could be a win for local fishermen, dairy and cattle operations, and the planet.
stop the greenwashing
Ummm....that article says there was still a drastic methane cut, it was just ~20% after accounting for the longer life of the cattle due to unpredicted slower mass gain with the supplement. They had hoped for no changes to development of the cattle and around 80% or higher emissions cut. Article also makes it clear there were a lot of confounders in how they measured methane in the trial so this is realistically a great starting point and a strong show of the value proposition. Moreover, seaweed is good for water ecosystems so cultivating it at scale would be another value add. I don't eat farmed meat, but I don't expect that to ever be standard across the human species and this is certainly a strong improvement. You don't seem to understand what greenwashing is.
, it was just ~20% after accounting for the longer life of the cattle due to unpredicted slower mass gain with the supplement.
Unpredicted is wrong there, there are many substances, additives, and outright plants that can be added to ruminant diets to reduce GHG emissions and that usually has consequences. The animal farmers have known about these for a long time as it's part of the "technology"; sometimes the additives reduce weight gain, sometimes they cause harms; sometimes the plants taint the meat or milk.
They had hoped for no changes to development of the cattle and around 80% or higher emissions cut.
Yes, it's a huge failure.
a great starting point and a strong show of the value proposition
It's not. This has been going on for years.
Here's a long article: https://etcgroup.org/content/seaweed-delusion
Anything to preserve the unethical beef industry but reduce meat consumption!