SEAWEED EASES CATTLE BURPS

A small amount of seaweed could reduce agricultural methane emissions. Livestock account for around

15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. A large part of this is methane, burped from cattle.

But new research, published in PLOS ONE, has found that a particular genus of seaweed could play a big role in reducing methane made by beef cattle.

Lab studies had shown that seaweed in the Asparagopsis genus might be an effective methane antagonist, and an Australian study had identified one species, Asparagopsis

taxiformis, as the most promising candidate. The new study fed small amounts of the seaweed to cattle to see if these results were repeatable in the field.

Researchers found that steers on the seaweed diet consistently burped less methane than their no-seaweed counterparts. Depending on other variations to their diet – such as foraging and total amount of food eaten – this reduction was as much as 82%.

“There is more work to be done, but we are very encouraged by these results,” says Breanna Roque, lead author on the study.