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When we observe a cow quietly ruminate in a meadow it is difficult to imagine that the animal is damaging the environment from the release of methane. Although it is true that grazing cattle help the planet by renewing pastures that absorb CO2, in general agriculture is responsible for 12% of greenhouse emissions in the world, especially methane, the second harmful gas after carbon dioxide .
Cournon-d’Auvergne (France) (AFP)
Agriculture and livestock generate 40% of the methane linked to human activity. The rest comes mainly from the gas sector.
This is mainly due to the digestion process of ruminants, which release methane when burping, and not as is often attributed to their flatulence. 95% of the methane emissions of cattle come from their snouts.
Research, both public and private, multiplies initiatives to remedy it, although for now it is difficult for them to be implemented on farms.
US giant Cargill is developing a project with British startup Zelp on a halter-shaped device. The mechanism, placed in the cow’s snout, filters the methane to transform it into CO2, whose heating effect of each molecule is much less than that of a methane molecule.
“The first data is interesting, with reductions in methane emissions by half,” Ghislain Boucher, head of the ruminant service at animal feed manufacturer Provimi (a Cargill subsidiary), recently told AFP.
The device, however, still has to be tested “under real conditions”, before considering its commercialization in late 2022, or 2023.
In the short term, Cargill begins to sell in northern Europe a chemical food supplement, calcium nitrate: 200 grams in the daily ration would allow a 10% reduction in methane emissions.
The cost is estimated at “between 10 and 15 cents per cow per day,” said Boucher on the sidelines of a professional livestock meeting in central France.
Seaweed on the menu
According to an American study, the potential of red algae as a food supplement is much higher, with emission reductions that can reach more than 80%. If these results can be reproduced, it would be convenient to develop the cultivation of red algae, especially near farms, according to Californian researchers.
To all this, it is necessary to see how the farmers will react, who will have to pay more expensively without improving the economic benefits of the animals, except if they are remunerated in the form of carbon credits, for example. And it should also be taken into account what consumers will do, concerned about the food eaten by the cattle that end up on their plate.
The experts contacted by the AFP coincide in saying that, for now, it would be possible to reduce the number of animals considered unproductive, for example by advancing the age at which cows have their first calf.
A report by the United Nations program for the environment indicated in May 2021 that technological solutions had “limited potential” to significantly reduce emissions from the sector.
The document previously recommended trying to change some habits, such as reducing food waste, improving hatchery management and adopting a diet with less meat and dairy products.
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