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There is a pretty simple solution to the meat problem. Most of that methane comes from cows, and some seaweed thrown into their diet eliminates their methane em

There is a pretty simple solution to the meat problem. Most of that methane comes from cows, and some seaweed thrown into their diet eliminates their methane emissions. https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/11/23/1826/how-seaweed-could-shrink-livestocks-global-carbon-hoofprint/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/11/23/1826/how-seaweed...

hannob 6y ago
This seaweed story comes up so often. Every time I looked it up it seems this is based on some very small studies. As far as I know noone has ever implemented this at scale (if you know otherwise - please provide links) and is selling meat produced that way. Look, I'm not against researching such stuff. But calling that "a pretty simple solution" before this has ever been tried out for real doesn't seem valid.
- Eric_WVGG 6y ago
  Simpler than convincing the globe to change their eating habits, certainly. I don’t have any better idea than you how the science works out, and the supply chain thing sounds nontrivial, but that’s nothing compared to getting masses of people to change their habits. We can’t talk red staters into take wearing masks for a few months, and next we are going to make them give up bbq?
  - germinalphrase 6y ago
    Or allow prices to rise and people will choose to eat less meat on their own.
Valgrim 6y ago
"Simple" Over a billion cows are spread over the world. They eat over 10 billion kg of dry food each day. Estimating a 0.5% seaweed supplement, we're talking about 50 million kg of dry seaweed. Assuming a 90% water content, we're talking about 500 million kg of one particular type of seaweed that need to be harvested, dried and shipped all over the world. Every single day. And we have to be careful about not depleting natural resources, nutrients and destroying natural habitats. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying that there's nothing simple about that. Maybe instead we could find out why this type of seaweed reduces methane generation?
- Eric_WVGG 6y ago
  Simple compared to getting people to change their eating habits, for sure. “Maybe instead...” yes, the researches who came up with this are doing that, it’s their job.
  - baq 6y ago
    changing people's eating habits in the west is super easy: tax undesirable products. price rises, demand drops. this also notably applies to everything else, e.g. gas/diesel, sugar, plastic.
  - Beached 6y ago
    just stop subsidizing beef. people will shift to chicken and pork/ham.
- gridlockd 6y ago
  Compared to current amounts of cultivation, that sounds like a lot, but that is only the seaweed that humans consume. Mass-scale seaweed production has been thrown around as a method for sequestering CO2. Methane itself could be sequestered as well. Either way, I'm fine with a beef tax to cover some of those costs, but lower-income groups might. I'm not keen on forcing an inferior diet on them.
  - ablation 6y ago
    You can avoid eating beef without being "forced" an "inferior diet". In fact it would probably be better for people to NOT eat beef.
    - gridlockd 6y ago
      It is inferior by my standards, not yours. Your standards do not matter when it comes to my diet, and vice versa. I am not forcing my standards on lower income people anyway, but supporting a tax that hurts them and not me seems wrong.
  - andy_ppp 6y ago

hannob 6y ago

This seaweed story comes up so often. Every time I looked it up it seems this is based on some very small studies. As far as I know noone has ever implemented this at scale (if you know otherwise - please provide links) and is selling meat produced that way. Look, I'm not against researching such stuff. But calling that "a pretty simple solution" before this has ever been tried out for real doesn't seem valid.

Eric_WVGG 6y ago
Simpler than convincing the globe to change their eating habits, certainly. I don’t have any better idea than you how the science works out, and the supply chain thing sounds nontrivial, but that’s nothing compared to getting masses of people to change their habits. We can’t talk red staters into take wearing masks for a few months, and next we are going to make them give up bbq?
- germinalphrase 6y ago
  Or allow prices to rise and people will choose to eat less meat on their own.

Valgrim 6y ago

"Simple" Over a billion cows are spread over the world. They eat over 10 billion kg of dry food each day. Estimating a 0.5% seaweed supplement, we're talking about 50 million kg of dry seaweed. Assuming a 90% water content, we're talking about 500 million kg of one particular type of seaweed that need to be harvested, dried and shipped all over the world. Every single day. And we have to be careful about not depleting natural resources, nutrients and destroying natural habitats. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying that there's nothing simple about that. Maybe instead we could find out why this type of seaweed reduces methane generation?

Eric_WVGG 6y ago
Simple compared to getting people to change their eating habits, for sure. “Maybe instead...” yes, the researches who came up with this are doing that, it’s their job.
- baq 6y ago
  changing people's eating habits in the west is super easy: tax undesirable products. price rises, demand drops. this also notably applies to everything else, e.g. gas/diesel, sugar, plastic.
- Beached 6y ago
  just stop subsidizing beef. people will shift to chicken and pork/ham.
gridlockd 6y ago
Compared to current amounts of cultivation, that sounds like a lot, but that is only the seaweed that humans consume. Mass-scale seaweed production has been thrown around as a method for sequestering CO2. Methane itself could be sequestered as well. Either way, I'm fine with a beef tax to cover some of those costs, but lower-income groups might. I'm not keen on forcing an inferior diet on them.
- ablation 6y ago
  You can avoid eating beef without being "forced" an "inferior diet". In fact it would probably be better for people to NOT eat beef.
  - gridlockd 6y ago
    It is inferior by my standards, not yours. Your standards do not matter when it comes to my diet, and vice versa. I am not forcing my standards on lower income people anyway, but supporting a tax that hurts them and not me seems wrong.
- andy_ppp 6y ago