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Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by mazsa on Thursday February 21, 2019 @08:10AM (#19216586)
FYI: "Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps, research finds" https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/cows-seaweed-metha...
Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by hannob on Thursday February 21, 2019 @02:21PM (#19219734)
I've read this cows/seaweed story now often enough that I looked into it. It seems it's all based on a study on 12 cows performed by UC Davis [1].

That is... not exactly confidence inspiring. It may very well be a statistical fluke and the reality is much less reassuring.

Not saying we shouldn't research in that direction, but this looks way too early to be confident in it.

[1] https://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/news/research-led-ermias-k...

Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by mazsa on Thursday February 21, 2019 @03:56PM (#19220499)
I don't want to prevent you from testing on a larger sample:)
Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by kasey_junk on Thursday February 21, 2019 @08:57AM (#19216867)
But it does hardly anything got the carbon costs of their feed.
Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by mazsa on Thursday February 21, 2019 @09:58AM (#19217263)
"hardly anything" = 80% of feed crops, foregone absorption of greenhouse gases (i.e. 32% of all of their carbon costs, cf. https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/54D29... )
Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by chosenbreed37 on Thursday February 21, 2019 @10:36AM (#19217530)
Is the sourcing of seaweed in sufficient quantities free of cost?
Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by philipkglass on Thursday February 21, 2019 @03:34PM (#19220331)
The active anti-methane compound from seaweed is likely bromoform:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10811-016-0830-7

It would be a cheap food supplement since the methane inhibition required only about 2% seaweed in cattle food, which in turn implies a bromoform feed content of only about 35 parts per million. Though no doubt some farmers would prefer to be able to say that they add seaweed rather than a particular chemical to their cattle feed.

Re:Indonesia reports reduced deforestation, triggering carbo... by mazsa on Thursday February 21, 2019 @04:03PM (#19220560)
of course nothing is free but they think it may be feasible: https://www.symbrosiasolutions.com/team