Based on the east coast of Tasmania, the company is pioneering the cultivation of high-bromoform asparagopsis and is working closely with FutureFeed to commercialize the seaweed as a livestock feed supplement, he says. When the seaweed was first trialed by scientists, it performed so well that they assumed their equipment was broken, he adds. Cows contribute 3 percent of Britain's overall greenhouse gas emissions and 25 to 30 percent of its methane. Read an introduction to the article: Livestock and global change: Emerging issues for sustainable food systems, The article in the news: BBC News article: Cattle are top global livestock emittersIRIN Article: Cattle in poor countries produce more earth-warming gases, CCAFS is a collaboration among CGIAR Centers and Reserch Programs.The Program is carried out with support from its donors, Creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. Shellfish costs the environment 11.7 kilos of CO2 for every kilo of food produced, just marginally less than butter. "FutureFeed might just be one of those options. He points to the broader need to develop technologies that can help feed growing populations, while also combating climate change. Sea Forest conducts laboratory research on asparagopsis cultivation. At present, Sea Forest expects to harvest 500 tons of dried asparagopsis a year at its pilot facility and has plans to triple the annual harvest by 2022, says Elsom. Additionally, FutureFeed estimates that if just 10% of the global livestock industry fed their cows an asparagopsis supplement, the positive climate impact would be significant -- equivalent to taking 100 million cars off the road. Therefore the release of about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2'300 kg CO2 per year. Another dairy product, cheese, comes in fifth place with 9.8 kg of emissions per kg produced. A cow does on overage release between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year. Watch Mario Herrero discuss mitigation opportunities within the livestock sector in a live-streamed science seminar: Researchers from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) were also part of this research project and article. In the list of foods that contributed the most to this reduction, pork is third behind beef and orange juice. The US has the world's largest fed-cattle industry, numbering more than. Mario Herrero, lead author of the study stated in an accompanying article by BBC News, that "there has been a lot of research focused on the challenges at the global level but if the problems are global, the solutions are almost all local and very situation-specific.". One kilo of pork creates 7.9 kilos of carbon emissions. The seaweed is also farmed on land, in large, aerated tanks filled with fresh ocean water, and raceway ponds -- structures equipped with paddle wheels that circulate the water, says Elsom. FutureFeed attributes the seaweed's methane-busting clout to a compound called bromoform, which stop microbes in the cows' guts producing the gas. With four other investors including Australia's largest supermarket chain, Woolworths, the organization hopes to make belching bovines less of a problem -- by adding a pinky-red, fern-like seaweed called asparagopsis to their diet. Along with milk, pork, and high-fructose corn syrup -- widely used as a sweetener in soft drinks -- shellfish is among the key foods that Americans are eating less of. Australia is home to around 1% of the global cow population, says Battaglia. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), also shows that the quality of an animal’s diet makes a major difference in both feed efficiency and emission intensity. He believes that's achievable, and points to the country's prawn farms, which currently occupy a similar area. Learn more about this milestone study on the ILRI News site: As livestock eat, so they emit: Highly variable diets drive highly variable climate change ‘hoofprints’–BIG new study. Eating less chicken meat is one of the contributing factors that have led to a reduction in per-capita emissions linked to food in the US, but poultry still ranks in the top 10, with just over five kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of product. The science is clear, but a major hurdle remains -- there isn't enough asparagopsis. Pork and poultry account for only 10 per cent of the global livestock emissions. A new study shows in great details what farm animals in many parts of the world eat, how efficiently the feed is converted into milk, eggs and meat, and the volume of greenhouse gases the various animals produce as a result. But even with the best technology, will it be possible to grow enough asparagopsis to make a significant dent in the methane problem? For each kilo of lamb meat consumed, there are 22.9 kilos of emissions, the NRDC study estimates. Elsom has secured a 100 hectare marine lease, where he grows asparagopsis on ropes. FutureFeed will conduct full-scale trials later this year, to gather data on enhanced growth rates.