LET THEM EAT...SEAWEED

Researchers: New Diet to Stop Cow Farts ‘Will Fight Climate Change’

Scientists say cow flatulence make up 25 percent of methane emissions in the U.S.

A Massachusetts-based aquaculture company is trying to fight climate change by mass producing a type of seaweed that, if fed to cows, will make them fart and burp less. The theory that switching the diet of livestock to seaweed can cut down on gas emissions has already gotten some support from researchers at University of California, Davis, who say the methane from cows’ burps makes up 25 percent of methane emissions in the U.S. But the aquaculture company, Australis Aquaculture, is now seeking to use those scientific findings to make seaweed livestock feed the norm. The company, which is currently conducting research at facilities in Vietnam and Portugal, hopes to be producing seaweed on a commercial scale within the next two years to make “Greener Grazing” go mainstream. “If you could feed all the cows this seaweed, it would be the equivalent of taking all these cars off the road,” Josh Goldman, the company’s CEO, told the Associated Press. The “Green Grazing” effort has reportedly already gotten the attention of the World Bank, where experts say seaweed could substantially help developing nations.