[headbee]

Article from Wired on why algae isn't the silver bullet it's marketed as: https://www.wired.com/story/carbon-neutral-cows-algae/

Essentially, it's only useful for pasture raised cows (soy and corn fed feedlot cows already produce a fraction of the methane) and there's no practical way to add algae to pasture raised cows' diets. They also speculate that cows' microbiomes will adapt to the algae.

[pavedwalden]

Thanks for supplying the fact-check I was looking for. I think I've been seeing headlines about this "discovery" for over a decade, always presented as if it's a promising new technique but obviously there must be some reason it hasn't caught on by now.

[asciimo]

"I can keep eating steak because Science is about to solve that problem..."

[wyre]

Same. I would think at this point there would be companies focused on algae production for ruminants. AFAIK there is only one company in Australia that is doing this.

I haven’t read the Wired article yet but my critique is that there isn’t enough seaweed being farmed to adequately enrich a significant cattle population and all this headline does is relax self-judgement of environmentally-conscious meat eaters.

[thescriptkiddie]

If we're going to continue to have cattle, pasture raised is the only way to do it. Feedlots are not just devastating to the environment, they are inhumane on a level that is difficult to even conceive.