Maine Scientists Seeing If Seaweed Makes Cows Burp Less

It's been no secret for years now, that one of the biggest contributors to climate change and greenhouse gasses, is the amount of methane that comes out of cows when they burp. And since they spend pretty much their whole lives standing around and eating, they burp a lot.

For years, there's been research at finding ways to mitigate the gaseousness of cows. And now, some scientists here in Maine have learned that adding seaweed to a cow's diet can greatly reduce the amount of methane they produce. Because the amount they are currently producing is fully one-third of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

The Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is working with the Maine Seaweed Council and Wolfe's Neck Farm in Freeport to do the study. Schools in New Hampshire and Vermont will also be involved. But these three organizations in particular, are a match made in heaven for the project. You've got sea people, seaweed people, and cow people. Boom!

In a recent post from WGME - TV13, they get into great detail about the science behind it, but the long and short, is that the seaweed helps create less gas when added to their diet. And they have some pretty sophisticated ways to detect the amount of gas they're producing by monitoring their feed stations. The technology is pretty crazy.

Now, we can debate climate change all we want, but there's got to be something to it if there are all these scientists out there who agree it's a real thing. Nor are we here for a philosophical debate about the issue either. The worst thing that could possibly be going on here is that we find out some useful information for, or against, the issue.

But, I support any research that make this planet a better place to live for future generations. I'll be off this plane of existence far sooner than I'd like, but that's life. Why not explore every avenue possible to keep future generations healthy, right?