4 ms·

Doesn'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 ago
This 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 ago
  I 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 ago
If you grow it in the sea, you're creating the transportation problem the poster was complaining about.
- bacon_waffle 7y ago
  Sure, 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 ago
  The "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 ago

This 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 ago
I 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 ago

If you grow it in the sea, you're creating the transportation problem the poster was complaining about.

bacon_waffle 7y ago
Sure, 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 ago
The "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.