Meanwhile, startups like Blue Ocean Barns, Rumin8, and Symbrosia are developing, testing, or seeking approval for products derived from a type of red seaweed, which could reduce methane levels even further. Still other organizations are trying to tackle the problem in longer-lasting ways, by developing vaccines or altering the microbes in the guts of cattle.
It remains to be seen how many cattle farmers will pay for such products. But in the case of Bovaer, farmers who use it can earn greenhouse-gas credits that some companies will buy on voluntary carbon markets as a way to reduce their corporate climate footprints, according to Elanco, which is marketing the additive in the US. Meanwhile, Rumin8 says cattle taking its supplements could deliver more meat and milk.
The additives certainly don’t solve the whole problem. The cattle industry needs to take other major steps to cut its climate emissions, including halting its encroachment into carbon-absorbing forests. And to make any real dent in demand, food companies will have to develop better, cheaper, cleaner alternative products, like plant-based burgers and dairy substitutes.
But methane-cutting supplements increasingly look like a promising way to solve a big chunk of a very big problem.
