Key Considerations for the Use of Seaweed to Reduce Enteric Methane Emissions From Cattle
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Date:
December 23, 2020
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Sandra Vijn and Adele Turzillo, WWF
Devan Paulus Compart, Land O'Lakes Inc.
Nikki Dutta, Timothy D. Kurt, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
Athanasios Foukis and Nichole N. Price, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Matthias Hess and Ermias Kebreab, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis
Alexander N. Hristov, Department of Animal Science, Pennsylvania State University
Kenneth F. Kalscheur, US Dairy Forage Research Center, USDA-Agricultural Research Service
Sergey V. Nuzhdin, Section of Molecular and Computational Biology, University of Southern California
Yan Sun, Cargill Animal Nutrition and Health
Juan M. Tricarico, Innovation Center for US Dairy
Martin R. Weisbjerg, Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University
Charles Yarish, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut
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This publication relates to:
Enteric methane emissions are the single largest source of direct GHGs in beef and dairy value chains and a substantial contributor to anthropogenic methane emissions globally. In late 2019, WWF, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) convened approximately 50 stakeholders representing research and production of seaweeds, animal feeds, dairy cattle, and beef and dairy foods to discuss challenges and opportunities associated with the use of seaweed-based ingredients to reduce enteric methane emissions. This Perspective article describes the considerations identified by the workshop participants and suggests next steps for the further development and evaluation of seaweed-based feed ingredients as enteric methane mitigants. Although numerous compounds derived from sources other than seaweed have been identified as having enteric methane mitigation potential, these mitigants are outside the scope of this article.
