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My company is currently working to grow Asparagopsis Taxiformis, here in the US, for this purpose. I agree with comments that we have big issues to tackle in r
by goodalgae 7y ago
My company is currently working to grow Asparagopsis Taxiformis, here in the US, for this purpose.
I agree with comments that we have big issues to tackle in regards to methane sinks failing, such as permafrost, and there are things to be said about people moving en masse to plant based diets – but, the future will always be a mix of tomorrow and today. Many people will still eat beef, and we need to ensure we reduce the negative effects of raising cattle as much as possible. We need a giant, mixed bag of tricks working in unison to slow the warming we have caused over the last 100 years.
Luckily, current research is showing that – not only does AT nearly eliminate methane from the bovine digestive process entirely when supplementing between half and two percent of daily diet – we are seeing early indications in research of some amazing additional benefits – improved milk production, increased immunity, improved food conversion ratio (meaning you can feed cattle less and have them pack on more protein). Studies are not finalized, but what I have heard of them sounds very, very good.
My background is in tech (founded and exited a TechStars company and have had a career in software and hardware startups) and my colleagues are in marine biology and phycology (algae science). My hope is that by approaching this problem from the perspective of a fast-iterating startup, we can get this product to market faster than the traditional routes of academic timelines and federal funding sources this industry is used to.
If you are an investor, beef serving restaurant owner, or in business related to cattle raising and finishing and would like to find out more, please email us at info+hackernews@goodalgae.com. And follow our newsletter for updates at https://goodalgae.com https://goodalgae.com.
Cheers!
- m0zg 7y agoSeems like just growing seaweed won't be enough though. You'd have to grow it _in close proximity to the cows_, otherwise there are other greenhouse gases that will be emitted before the cows can eat it. It's also unclear to me what this means in terms of water consumption, and therefore sustainability. I'd be curious to hear how (if at all) these issues could be addressed.
- bacon_waffle 7y agoDoesn't this seaweed grow in the sea? As far as I understand, the main water concerns as relate to cows, are about freshwater for growing fodder.
- mateodelnorte 7y agoThis seaweed does grow in the sea, obviously, however there isn't nearly enough of it in the sea to provide for the US (or worldwide, for that matter) cattle market. Further, this particular seaweed is presently undomesticated – which means that of the various types of algal cultivation methods (rope culture, tumble culture, etc) no one has quite gotten down the best means of getting stable growth out of the strain. This is what we are working to do.
- bacon_waffle 7y agoI meant that adding seaweed to a cow's diet seems unlikely to increase the demand on our limited fresh water supply. AFAIK, there's no risk in running out of seawater.
- daveFNbuck 7y agoIf you grow it in the sea, you're creating the transportation problem the poster was complaining about.
- bacon_waffle 7y agoSure, but that only leads to a fresh water problem if the chosen "solution" to the transportation problem is to grow seaweed inland. From the article: "When added to cow feed at less than 2% of the dry matter, this particular seaweed completely knocks out methane production.".
- TendOcean 7y agoThe "Transportation problem" can easily be overstated. If we assume AT is grown offshore to avoid the well-recognized conflicts of near-shore, then harvested material needs to get to shore for some form of processing and subsequent shipping to where the cows are. Given the super efficient nature of shipping goods over water (at least at low speed) at least the water portion of that route would be of little concern. Technologies are under development specifically for this purpose. A bigger problem may be where AT can be farmed, since it is not native to US waters (except Hawaii) and permitting agencies are understandably strict about introductions.
- mateodelnorte 7y agoWe aim to grow close to consumption.
- bacon_waffle 7y agoFrom your comment mentioning this seaweed not being domesticated, I'm wondering what the development process looks like. Are you starting by trying to grow undomesticated seaweed in a completely artificial setting, is the first step to domesticate the seaweed in the sea, something else?
- mateodelnorte 7y agoAn additional thing to consider is that not all greenhouse gases are created equal. You can find any number of articles to cite as source that methane is 20 to 30 times worse for the atmosphere in causing warming than carbon dioxide. https://blogs.princeton.edu/research/2014/03/26/a-more-potent-greenhouse-gas-than-co2-methane-emissions-will-leap-as-earth-warms-nature/ https://blogs.princeton.edu/research/2014/03/26/a-more-poten...
- AtomicOrbital 7y agoWater vapor is by far the biggest green house gas
- comicjk 7y agoThis is true but not very informative. Each greenhouse gas absorbs heat at different wavelengths, with no single gas covering the spectrum. Adding CO2 or methane increases heat absorption, even in air that's saturated with water vapor.
- m0zg 7y agoI've run the numbers and it looks like all cattle on earth emit something like 150MT of methane per year. Multiplied by 20 (to get CO2 equivalent), that's 3GT. That's about 8% of the yearly total CO2 emissions (37GT). Certainly not negligible, but not earth shattering either. For comparison, per-capita CO2 emissions in the US are 16.5 metric tons. Per cow methane emissions are about 100kg per year or 2-3 tons in CO2 equivalent.
- esotericn 7y ago8% for the sake of what amounts to a flavour in your mouth is pretty earth shattering. Consider: would you spend 8% of your entire financial budget on beef? On an income of $30K, say, you'd spend $2400 on beef, ignoring all other food and other expenses? I'd even flip it around - take a random person off the street, in the UK, say, and tell them you'll give them 2 grand a year to stop eating beef. How many people do you think would take you up on that who don't even care about the environment? It's stark raving bonkers.
- malloryerik 7y agoEven if the seaweed were shipped in trucks over distance you'd likely still have a large net benefit as only a small amount of seaweed needs to be added to the cattle's diet in order to prevent methane emissions.
- 2_listerine_pls 7y agoWhat's the mechanism behind methane reduction?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- goodalgae 7y agoThe mechanism is mostly understood, but not perfectly. Most people know that a cow has multiple stomachs. The second stomach is called a rumen. A cow chews it's cud (essentially big mashes of grass and grain, which a stomach cannot digest). This cud is passed through the first stomach and into the rumen, which contains beneficial, digestive bacteria. The bacteria in the rumen essentially ferment the cud and make compounds which can be digested in the subsequent stomaches. Unfortunately, methane is a natural byproduct of this process. AT and a number of other algae contain very low amounts of a compound called bromoform. Bromoform in high amounts is toxic, but it's believed that bromoform in these trace amounts changes the chemical reaction being undertaken within the rumen such that methane is no longer a product. The result is a more efficient digestive process, essentially lending energy back to the cow. Easier digestion for cows seems to equal better health and immunity, increased length of heat, increased food conversion ratios and perhaps just happier cows. There is a possibility of interaction with additional trace nutrients and compounds in the algae as well, and this is being researched. Something to note is that AT is not the only algae that reduces methane production in cattle. It is just, by far, the most efficient. And algae is not the only product which decreases methane in cattle, as well. Companies are marketing probiotics and small molecule methane inhibitors which do similar jobs, but again, AT is nearly twice as effective.
- choeger 7y agoSo, essentially they are poisoning the cows ever so slightly?
- derefr 7y agoIn the sense that humans eating capsaicin are poisoning themselves slightly; and not the sense in which humans drinking alcohol are poisoning themselves slightly. It’s such a different order of magnitude that there’s a qualitative, not just quantitative, change in the body’s response.
- deevolution 7y agoThis would be a tremendous benefit if it can be deployed at scale, which I'm sure it eventually could. HOWEVER, This solution fails to address the excessive amount of water consumption required to raise these cows. fresh, clean water is already becoming a major global crisis. The simplest and most effective solution to ensuring our survival as a species remains switching to a plant-based diet. Too many people adopt a cow-first mentality when we should be adopting a humanity-first mentality. The future is Vegan!
- chrisco255 7y agoThere is no evidence of a fresh water shortage. We had the wettest year in 125 years in the U.S. this year. Where is this coming from? Water usage is a local issue, not a global one. Certain local communities have to watch water usage depending on rainfall. Certain ones do not. Either way, cows drink water and pee water. Water goes through the same cycle it has for billions of years. The U.S. used to have a wild bison population as great as the present cattle population. Same digestive system. Beef is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and we evolved to eat meat, and have been eating it for 2.5 million years. I'm all about sustainable agriculture. I'm not all about faddish diets and eco-fascism.
- petersellers 7y ago> There is no evidence of a fresh water shortage. The UN disagrees. [1] > We had the wettest year in 125 years in the U.S. this year. Surely you're not using a one time event to argue against the scientific consensus of climate change? > Beef is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and we evolved to eat meat, and have been eating it for 2.5 million years. What does this have to do with the water consumption used in raising cows? [1] - https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/climate-change/ https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/climate-change/
- chrisco255 7y agoSurely you're not arguing that the amount of water on the planet has decreased? Or that global annual rainfall has reduced? EPA shows that annual precipitation has consistently increased over the past century, so the water scare is a bad play: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-precipitation https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica...
- wwweston 7y ago> early indications in research of some amazing additional benefits – improved milk production, increased immunity, improved food conversion ratio What are the chances the gains here might be on the order where we could stop dosing cattle with antibiotics?
- solveit 7y agoBasically none. We will continue to dose cattle with antibiotics as long as there is additional gain from doing so, regardless of how profitable cattle without antibiotics are.
- r00fus 7y agoOr until legislation forces big AG to stop doing it for the sake of everyone else.
- benj111 7y agoSo you're saying if farming antibiotic free cattle is twice as profitable as today, and farming antibiotic cattle is loss making, farmers are still going to farm antibiotic cattle? You know farms are businesses, they are motivated by money.
- xanipher 7y agoNo, what they are saying is that cows fed with seaweed AND antibiotics are still more profitable than cows fed only with seaweed.
- belorn 7y agoAntibiotics in farming is used in order to keep animals in a environment where if it wasn't for the antibiotics they would get sick. Factory farms, or concentrated animal feeding operation as it are sometimes called, are crowded and stressful for the animal. Hygiene, temperature and ventilation are often bad. In combination this create a environment where sickness is rampant and currently antibiotics is the primary tool to keeps it functioning enough to be profitable. Seaweed is extremely unlikely to replace antibiotics in those kind of operations.
- tr3ndyBEAR 7y agoIf AT can do this for bovines, I wonder what the health benefits for us could be
- rabbitonrails 7y agoReducing methane emissions is not a health benefit.
- zdw 7y agoA social benefit then?
- DoreenMichele 7y agoBut it's a proxy for inferring reduced gut distress. So it's not an unreasonable thing to wonder about.
- tapland 7y agoIs it actually or is it just not liking farts and rationalizing reducing them?
- DoreenMichele 7y agoI have a serious medical condition that significantly impacts the gut. Worse gas corresponds to more gut issues. Everything I've read (or heard from other people) suggests it is not just me, that this principle generalizes.
- 0-_-0 7y agoIs your medical condition causing the gas or the other way around?
- DoreenMichele 7y agoBad gas corresponds to times when I'm more symptomatic. My condition causes serious gut dysfunction. Bad gassiness is one of many side effects when my gut is a mess. I've spent over eighteen years pursuing dietary and lifestyle changes to mitigate my incurable condition. I have a lot less gas than I used to.
- muzakthings 7y agothis is super cool. do you think the primary demand driver for your sales will be 1) gov't mandates, or 2) cattle farmers wanting to differentiate their meat to eco-conscious customers / retailers? just curious about how you see the market.
- pweezy 7y ago> we are seeing early indications in research of some amazing additional benefits – improved milk production, increased immunity, improved food conversion ratio (meaning you can feed cattle less and have them pack on more protein) These "additional benefits" are all things that would increase profit - reduced loss of output from sickness; increased production; reduced feed consumption. If the seaweed is cheap enough, it could be worth it for farmers to use without additional incentives. Though, they would also get green cred "for free." Edit: fix typos
- ptah 7y agowhere does the methane go instead? there must be some trade off somewhere?
- joatmon-snoo 7y agoFrom the article: "When added to cow feed at less than 2% of the dry matter, this particular seaweed completely knocks out methane production. It contains chemicals that reduce the microbes in the cows’ stomachs that cause them to burp when they eat grass."
- benj111 7y agoIf you put out are fire, where does the smoke go instead? The methane was produced by a bacteria, it is never produced to go anywhere if you get rid of the bacteria. The trade off might be poorer digestive efficiency if the cow relies on this bacteria to break down some common molecule. Although it could just as easily be the case that the bacteria was introducing inefficiencies.
- tripzilch 7y ago> The trade off might be poorer digestive efficiency if the cow relies on this bacteria to break down some common molecule. We drifted a little, but the top-level comment of this same thread started out to suggest that if any, the effect might even be positive for the cow.
- gniv 7y agoIt is simply not produced. Methane is CH4. The carbon goes into CO2 instead (which is bad, but not as bad for the environment as methane).
- masonic 7y agoBTW, I find the wording on your landing page to be a bit awkward and the font used to be a difficult read as well. The '+' directive in the email address: do you use business Gmail, or does another email system use it similarly?
- brohee 7y ago+ in email works the same way since sendmail
- leipert 7y agoWhat is the feasibility of this, deploying it on a large scale? I did some quick calculations on a napkin. Apparently there are between 1 billion and 1.5 billion cows [0][1]. Let’s just say 1.5 Billion. In New Zealand the beef (dry cow) vs dairy cow ratio is almost 1:1 [2], but I assume that countries like India have more dairy cows, so I just assumed that 60% percent of cows are dairy cows. Apparently dry cows consume around 25 lb (11 kilogram) dry matter per day [3], milking cows 25kg dry matter [4]. Let’s just assume that 1% of the dry matter needs to be replaced with the algae, which is half of what the article mentions. That would mean, that we need: (1500 Million * 0.6 * 0.01 * 25kg) + (1500 Million * 0.4 * 0.01 * 11kg) = 291 Million kilogram = 291.000 metric tons of algae per day Just the logistics alone is major feat to pull off, put on a yearly scale the weight of these algae equals half of the trash produced in the US per year [5]. [0]: https://beef2live.com/story-world-cattle-inventory-ranking-countries-0-106905 https://beef2live.com/story-world-cattle-inventory-ranking-c... [1]: https://www.drovers.com/article/world-cattle-inventory-ranking-countries-fao https://www.drovers.com/article/world-cattle-inventory-ranki... [2]: https://teara.govt.nz/files/1_183_Beef_Ratios_0.pdf https://teara.govt.nz/files/1_183_Beef_Ratios_0.pdf [3]: http://www.thebeefsite.com/articles/3154/how-much-forage-does-a-beef-cow-consume-each-day/ http://www.thebeefsite.com/articles/3154/how-much-forage-doe... [4]: https://albertamilk.com/ask-dairy-farmer/how-much-feed-does-a-cow-need-to-produce-1-litre-of-milk/ https://albertamilk.com/ask-dairy-farmer/how-much-feed-does-... [5]: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=291*365+million+kilogram https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=291*365+million+kilogr...
- Seldaek 7y agoSounds like we need to start researching the effects of eating US trash on cow methane emissions. There might be a synergy here.
- shlant 7y agoit certainly seems like a farfetched bandaid for a very inefficient food source (no matter how you view it)
- asciimo 7y agoDefinitely. We'll never harvest more than 10% of the energy we feed livestock. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_level https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_level
- JulianMorrison 7y ago> not only does AT nearly eliminate methane from the bovine digestive process entirely when supplementing between half and two percent of daily diet – we are seeing early indications in research of some amazing additional benefits – improved milk production, increased immunity, improved food conversion ratio Does this not rather imply that the cows are nutritionally deficient of something that this seaweed provides? Perhaps something in their ancestral environment?
- stevespang 7y agoMicrobes in the cows stomach develop resistance to the seaweed compounds rapidly.