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Tuesday, 30 March 2021 16:00

Seaweed to the rescue

Written by  Milking It
Seaweed to the rescue

OPINION: Researchers at the University of California report an 82% reduction in methane emissions in cows fed small doses of seaweed a day for 21 weeks.

If it proves effective at scale, reductions of this size could offer significant climate benefits.

The new results published last week in the journal PLoS One, builds on work published by other researchers suggesting that adding certain types of seaweed can reduce livestock methane emissions.

In 2018, some of the same researchers behind the new paper recorded reductions of more than 50% among dairy cows after the introduction of a red-coloured seaweed called Asparagopsis taxiformis to their feed.

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