<story><title>Australia to produce seaweed cattle feed that reduces methane emissions by 80%</title><url>https://www.thecattlesite.com/news/55890/new-company-to-reduce-cows-methane-using-feed-additive-made-from-the-seaweed/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tassl</author><text>As unethical as eating soy from a deforested area. Or eating mostly anything with sugar, canola oil or palm oil. But people don&amp;#x27;t ask those to be in non deforested areas, and they don&amp;#x27;t ask to increase the price to make sure soil is not destroyed by monocrop cultivation.</text></item><item><author>nicoburns</author><text>If the beef you&amp;#x27;re eating was raised on a deforested area (anything from a big fast-food chain almost certainly was) then that&amp;#x27;s still pretty unethical though. I agree it doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that beef is inherently unethical. But people will need to be willing to accept higher prices in order to make it ethical.</text></item><item><author>s1artibartfast</author><text>That doesn&amp;#x27;t negate the point that deforestation is not necessary, and may not be typical.&lt;p&gt;100% of deforestation could be for beef production, but 99% of beef production could be without deforestation.</text></item><item><author>jamil7</author><text>&amp;gt; In Australia a significant amount (can&amp;#x27;t remember the specifics) of cattle is raised on land that is unsuitable for crop production. My own experience confirms this.&lt;p&gt;72% of all deforestation in Queensland and 94% in the Great Barrier Reef catchment areas is a direct result of land clearing for beef production.&lt;p&gt;Edit: One source was missing.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;Beef-Deforestation-Scorecard-Report.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;Beef-Deforest...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;The_Drivers_of_Deforestation_Land-clearing_Qld_Report.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;The_Drivers_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>jazzabeanie</author><text>In Australia a significant amount (can&amp;#x27;t remember the specifics) of cattle is raised on land that is unsuitable for crop production. My own experience confirms this. I&amp;#x27;ve seen many cattle farms around Queensland - some with low stocking density and no deforestation, others very poorly managed with no trees at all or full of invasive species.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not as simple as eating meat = bad, but that&amp;#x27;s the message most people are getting. If they respond by stopping eating meat, then great - not the best choice, but a step in the right direction. If they respond by stopping to care where their food comes from then not so great.</text></item><item><author>seanwilson</author><text>How much could this reduce the total environmental food print of cattle? I.e. including all the energy used to grow the crops they eat, the deforestation to make room for the crops + cattle, the waste the cows produce.&lt;p&gt;Animal farming creates vast damage because of how inefficient it is and seaweed won&amp;#x27;t address how much feed cows need or that the world is eating more and more meat as countries get richer:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The energy efficiency of meat and dairy production is defined as the percentage of energy (caloric) inputs as feed effectively converted to animal product. An efficiency of 25% would mean 25% of calories in animal feed inputs were effectively converted to animal product; the remaining 75% would be lost during conversion.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Whole milk: 24%&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Beef: 1.9%&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ourworldindata.org&amp;#x2F;grapher&amp;#x2F;energy-efficiency-of-meat-and-dairy-production&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ourworldindata.org&amp;#x2F;grapher&amp;#x2F;energy-efficiency-of-meat...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;All improvements are good, but I&amp;#x27;d like to know if this is more than a distraction to make people feel better about continuing to demand products they know are damaging the environment (e.g. Amazon deforestation).&lt;p&gt;Industrial farmed animals aren&amp;#x27;t eating grass, they&amp;#x27;re eating crops like soy. If you find soy milk and soy-based meat alternatives decent for example, consider eating those directly instead of products from soy-fed cows - it&amp;#x27;ll be vastly better for the environment with seaweed or not.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nicoburns</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s not entirely true. There is a whole movement around boycotting palm oil for example, just as there is with beef. It certainly could be more widely supported.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s worth noting that a lot of the soy from deforested areas also goes towards feeding livestock. The soy that humans eat (or drink) tends to be more more ethical on average.</text></comment>
<story><title>Australia to produce seaweed cattle feed that reduces methane emissions by 80%</title><url>https://www.thecattlesite.com/news/55890/new-company-to-reduce-cows-methane-using-feed-additive-made-from-the-seaweed/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tassl</author><text>As unethical as eating soy from a deforested area. Or eating mostly anything with sugar, canola oil or palm oil. But people don&amp;#x27;t ask those to be in non deforested areas, and they don&amp;#x27;t ask to increase the price to make sure soil is not destroyed by monocrop cultivation.</text></item><item><author>nicoburns</author><text>If the beef you&amp;#x27;re eating was raised on a deforested area (anything from a big fast-food chain almost certainly was) then that&amp;#x27;s still pretty unethical though. I agree it doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that beef is inherently unethical. But people will need to be willing to accept higher prices in order to make it ethical.</text></item><item><author>s1artibartfast</author><text>That doesn&amp;#x27;t negate the point that deforestation is not necessary, and may not be typical.&lt;p&gt;100% of deforestation could be for beef production, but 99% of beef production could be without deforestation.</text></item><item><author>jamil7</author><text>&amp;gt; In Australia a significant amount (can&amp;#x27;t remember the specifics) of cattle is raised on land that is unsuitable for crop production. My own experience confirms this.&lt;p&gt;72% of all deforestation in Queensland and 94% in the Great Barrier Reef catchment areas is a direct result of land clearing for beef production.&lt;p&gt;Edit: One source was missing.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;Beef-Deforestation-Scorecard-Report.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;Beef-Deforest...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;The_Drivers_of_Deforestation_Land-clearing_Qld_Report.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wilderness.org.au&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;The_Drivers_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>jazzabeanie</author><text>In Australia a significant amount (can&amp;#x27;t remember the specifics) of cattle is raised on land that is unsuitable for crop production. My own experience confirms this. I&amp;#x27;ve seen many cattle farms around Queensland - some with low stocking density and no deforestation, others very poorly managed with no trees at all or full of invasive species.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not as simple as eating meat = bad, but that&amp;#x27;s the message most people are getting. If they respond by stopping eating meat, then great - not the best choice, but a step in the right direction. If they respond by stopping to care where their food comes from then not so great.</text></item><item><author>seanwilson</author><text>How much could this reduce the total environmental food print of cattle? I.e. including all the energy used to grow the crops they eat, the deforestation to make room for the crops + cattle, the waste the cows produce.&lt;p&gt;Animal farming creates vast damage because of how inefficient it is and seaweed won&amp;#x27;t address how much feed cows need or that the world is eating more and more meat as countries get richer:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The energy efficiency of meat and dairy production is defined as the percentage of energy (caloric) inputs as feed effectively converted to animal product. An efficiency of 25% would mean 25% of calories in animal feed inputs were effectively converted to animal product; the remaining 75% would be lost during conversion.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Whole milk: 24%&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Beef: 1.9%&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ourworldindata.org&amp;#x2F;grapher&amp;#x2F;energy-efficiency-of-meat-and-dairy-production&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ourworldindata.org&amp;#x2F;grapher&amp;#x2F;energy-efficiency-of-meat...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;All improvements are good, but I&amp;#x27;d like to know if this is more than a distraction to make people feel better about continuing to demand products they know are damaging the environment (e.g. Amazon deforestation).&lt;p&gt;Industrial farmed animals aren&amp;#x27;t eating grass, they&amp;#x27;re eating crops like soy. If you find soy milk and soy-based meat alternatives decent for example, consider eating those directly instead of products from soy-fed cows - it&amp;#x27;ll be vastly better for the environment with seaweed or not.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rewq4321</author><text>For reference, only about 6% of soybeans grown worldwide are turned directly into food products for human consumption.[0] Most goes to feeding animals that are used for human consumption.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ucsusa.org&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;soybeans&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ucsusa.org&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;soybeans&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>