Saving the World with Seaweed
With beef production being a large contributor to the production of greenhouse gases, how can one minor change in the industry help save the planet?
BY: PAYAL DASS
Photo Courtesy of The New York Times
Earth Day has just passed, taking place on April 22 of this year. Knowing of the event, I felt obliged to do something that would aid the Earth in its healing process. I tried to use less light throughout the day and planted a couple of vegetable plant seeds in my backyard, but nothing made me feel like I was actually doing something that could cause a greater, positive impact on the environment...I remembered a conversation I had with my friend sometime last year.
We were talking about how our lifestyles negatively impact the environment. Knowing that climate change was an ongoing catastrophe and we both care about the health of our planet, I was aware that certain aspects of my lifestyle impacted the Earth for the worse.
My eating habits in particular were taking a huge toll on our planet. I eat meat, and doing so made me feel guilty and hypocritical, especially when discussing my dietary habits with this friend.
I eat lamb. Lamb is the livestock that produces the second-greatest amount of greenhouse gases. Although diets are not the largest contributor to harmful environmental emissions, other factors of my lifestyle are a major cause for the planet’s accelerated deterioration.
In fact, most greenhouse gases in wealthier countries are caused by fuel emissions released by modes of transportation like cars. Not to mention, the use of plastics and wastes that we produce, as a society, also contribute significantly to the problem.
Continuing the conversation with my vegan friend and a huge environmental activist, her passion about the topic showed when she said “it is no longer enough to cut down on meat intake in hopes that it will save our environment. People need to stop eating certain kinds of meat. The main one being beef.”
Upon asking her why beef was the particular meat she had called out, she explained that raising cattle and beef production are responsible for the largest amount of greenhouse gases of any other form of meat production, hence causing the planet to heat up.
Photo Courtesy of The New York Times
To get a better understanding of what she was teaching me, I took the time to do my own research.
Meat and dairy production is responsible for at least 14.7 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases per year. Among meat production, beef is the highest contributor to this alarming statistic, leaving a large climate footprint on the world.
Surprisingly, cows’ stomachs contain bacteria that help digest grass and other foods included in their diet. But this bacteria, the one that aids digestion, contains large amounts of methane that are later released from their bodies through burps, breathing, and farts.
Like any other model, the demand for beef production will keep increasing if people continue to eat cattle. By allowing this industry to continue to expand, our climate footprint will only continue to increase, leading to the destruction of the Earth in a shorter amount of time.
However, there is still time for us to change this.
Many scientists and researchers admit that cutting down meat and dairy intake is an effective way to rescue the climate footprint of wealthy countries, but turning vegan is not the only way. Many experts on the topic argue that sustainable food systems should include animal farming and that the climate footprint animals tend to leave throughout their production could be reduced, depending on how they are raised.
This means that if meat, like beef, were produced and farmed using sustainable methods, the reduction of the environmental impact could be achieved.
What do sustainable farming methods look like?
One way of turning cattle-raising into a more sustainable model is to alter the cows’ diet. Methane, as we talked about earlier, is detrimental to our environment. At the same time, it is a natural by-product of the feed cows are normally given for beef production. Usually, cattle on beef farms feed on pasture grasses, hay, and other summer plants. These foods increase the production of methane in the cows.
Recently, scientists discovered a new solution to drastically reduce methane emissions without impacting the way we feed cattle too much.
According to researchers at the University of California, Davis, new findings suggest that as little as 3oz of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions by 82 percent. That’s right, adding seaweed to cows' diet balances the levels of methane production.
Photo via Pinterest
Seaweed is the seemingly perfect feed to create more sustainable beef farming throughout the world, as it inhibits the enzymes that are responsible for methane production and release.
In a more recent study, two researchers, Kebreab and Roque, tested the sustainability and efficiency of this farming method. To do this, they took a population of cattle and fed them a little bit of seaweed daily, for five months. This time range would include the time the cattle were young, eating little feed, to the time the feed of these cattle significantly increased.
The cows would be fed seaweed four times a day from an open-air device that measured the levels of methane in their breath. Upon doing so, it was confirmed that the cattle who consumed seaweed produced a significantly less amount of methane than those who did not. This experiment also showed that there was no drop in efficiency over an extended period of time.
The continuation of cattle farming, whether it be for beef or dairy is viewed in a positive light for many researchers, as it still serves an important function in the sustainability of agriculture.
According to Kebreab, only a small portion of the earth is fit for crop production, and much more land is suitable for grazing. Livestock like cattle play a vital role in feeding the global population, thus it is important that farmers still provide nutrition through sustainable means.
It is also noted that livestock production and farming are large and complex systems. Some improvements and alterations in one area can cause and lead to deficiencies in others.
Photo Courtesy of Vice
Using this information, the agricultural industry can potentially continue to operate in a nearly identical way as it did before this revelation, except it can cause less negative impact and harm.
A simple change in agriculture like altering the diet of livestock can greatly decrease the climate footprint it previously created. Although this is seen as a groundbreaking discovery in the agricultural industry, it makes little impact in more developed countries like Canada.
However, if cutting out the use of these products immediately seems too intimidating, opting for diets that are light in meat intake can reduce your individual food-related footprint. In fact, adopting a vegetarian diet can reduce food-related footprints by one-third. Altering diets is shown to be one of the quickest ways to make an individual difference.
It will be hard to know when feeding seaweed to cattle becomes a normal practice in the agricultural industry, so perhaps making a conscious effort to support and purchase products that are made sustainably could also help reduce one’s climate footprint.
Through small changes, individually and collectively, we can reduce the negative impact we have had on our environment and find solutions for a greener future.
