Burpless Beef - is this a good thing?

(KM) #1

https://wapo.st/3T7legL

Not sure if the link will work, WaPo is a paid subscription. Let me know if you can’t read it, I can cut & paste some of it. Basically, they’re looking into changing the genetic biome of cows so that they no longer burp up methane.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

I doubt it will work. The methane is produced not by the cows, but by their microbiota, which are converting the cellulose in the cows’ diet into the fatty acids and the proteins that feed the cow.

Human beings belch and pass gas for the same reason, by the way; it’s methane produced by our intestinal fauna, as they digest the fibre we can’t.

I have also read that the real problem is that the grain that grain-finished cows are fed causes the bacteria to release far more methane than they would if the cows were allowed to eat grass instead. This makes sense, because the bacteria, the grasses, and the cows all evolved together.

(KM) #3

Did you actually read the article?

They’re hoping to better understand why feeding cows seaweed or garlic significantly reduces their methane production. Because it’s not practical to feed them this way while they’re ranging on grass, but if they can understand the mechanism and tweak the biome so that the cow is in effect carrying the same mechanism inside them, the net result would be the same.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

Given that the methane is part of a natural cycle in which bacteria in the rumen generate nutrients for the cows, I doubt that reducing the methane will still produce the nutrients that the cows need. They are looking at the problem from the wrong angle. After all, ruminants and grasses have been evolving together for several million years, and the earth’s systems evolved to handle the methane. It is the extra methane produced by human industrial processes that is the burden on the ecosystem.

Though if this research helps people get over their fear of meat, then in the long run I suppose it’s a good thing.

(Edith) #5

This is so dumb to me. Why don’t we change the human biome so that humans don’t belch and fart. There are wayyyyy more humans than cows. I believe this is called deflection. “Let’s blame the cows instead of ourselves.”

On keto, I rarely have gas. Add in a bunch of high fiber carbs or grains, I can probably compete with a cow. I’m curious how much methane is produced by them being fed all grass versus grains.

All of this ranting and conjecture is without having read the article. That will have to wait until this evening. :rofl:

(Bob M) #6

We need a discussion/debate between

(Looking at what cows eat to reduce emissions.)

And

(Not sure Peter cares about adding certain types of feed to reduce emissions.)

Edit: Saw a post on Threads where someone implied that one reason cows emit more gasses is because they get more antibiotics. I don’t think that’s true, but I’m no expert. (And neither were they.)

(KM) #7

IMO, if they can reduce methane emissions in cows without harming the meat - or the cows - it’s a win. Whether or not they’re actually responsible for the woes of the planet is another story, but less gas is good PR!

#8

I completely agree with you!! It’s utter nonsense. That time, energy, and money should be better spent on more worthwhile things that actually will help a lot of people, children, and communities. It drives me nuts the amount of money spent on this kind of research. Just leave the poor cows alone already. Life. Finds. A. Way. (Good ol’ Jurassic Park wisdom :rofl:) Well, it’s true. We think we are so powerful and try to be so controlling over everything, now even Mother Nature. Cow burps? You can’t write this stuff. :woman_facepalming:t3:

#9

Only the WaPo would write about something so stupid. Still with the cow burps/farts, guess it’s better than addressing actual problem. So instead of feeding the cows GMO’d crap, they just want to GMO the cows directly.

Can only imagine what safe beef would cost then!

(Geoffrey) #10

Burping cows have absolutely no effect on the environment. It’s a ridiculous concept.
Everyone needs to leave my cows alone.

(KM) #11

I wasn’t expecting so much push back about this! I’m fascinated with the idea that an at-birth adjustment of microbiome could be a more or less permanent solution … a permanent solution to anything, that doesn’t involve ongoing medication, surgery or any other body modification, to me that’s genius. Not just for the pseudo problem of cow farts; imagine what we might discover tweaking the microbiome could accomplish, without messing with our physical bodies! I feel like this is a totally novel approach.

(Bob M) #12

I don’t know about for cows, but I know for humans, we still know next to nothing about the human biome. It does…something?

For cows, if we can feed them something that lowers emissions, is that good or bad? We won’t know without a ton of testing.

(Geoffrey) #13

But there is no need to invest the time or money to proceed with something that isn’t needed. There is no point to doing this.
Then let’s look at screwing with nature. Look at was human has done to the food supply in this world. There is not a single grown food in America that is what our ancestors ate. None! Everything has been reengineered to increase profit yield and in so doing has removed what little nutritional benefit they may have had. Heck, even broccoli is man made and never existed until recently. Man has screwed up everything he tries to “improve”. We don’t need to be messing with the one food that is the best source of nutrition that we have. Guaranteed we will screw it up.

(Edith) #14

I agree. Nature is so complicated, we can have no idea what the effect on the whole could be by changing one little thing. Just look at the effect of invasive species. People import some plant or animal for aesthetics or hunting and then the plant chokes out native species or the animal becomes overpopulated because it has no natural predators in its new environment.

We know what changing a cow’s natural diet from grass to grain does to it and over time it is not good for the cow. I can’t imagine changing its diet to something that changes its microbiome to produce less methane would be any better.

Ya know, if every new build (homes and businesses) in America was expected to have solar panels, that would save a lot more in greenhouse gases than worrying about cow farts.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

His basic point is that the ruminants, the grasses, and the ecosystem evolved together to deal with the methane. It is human-produced methane that is the problem, because there is no ecological mechanism that has evolved to deal with it.