<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>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>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></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>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>pkphilip</author><text>For sustainable farming, livestock plays a very crucial role. This is particularly true for organic and natural farming.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.downtoearth.org.in&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;agriculture&amp;#x2F;organic-livestock-farming-a-revolution-in-the-making-71530&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.downtoearth.org.in&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;agriculture&amp;#x2F;organic-live...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;So looking at a single metric (methane emissions) doesn&amp;#x27;t do this topic justice.&lt;p&gt;Also, live stock grazing (if done properly) can also be a method of regreening environments.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.mongabay.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;though-forests-burn-agroforestry-advances-as-trees-retake-farmland-globally&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.mongabay.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;though-forests-burn-agrofo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>