Ben and Jerry’s Is Placing Their Cows on a Low Methane Emissions Weight loss plan

Cows at Ben & Jerry’s ice cream manufacturing facility in Waterbury, Vermont in 2016. jpellgen / Flickr

Do cows eat seaweed? On a Ben and Jerry’s dairy farm, sure. In Could, the favored ice cream maker introduced that they’ll be placing their cattle on a particular weight loss plan to cut back emissions of methane.

Ben and Jerry’s, in fact, depends on dairy to make their well-known ice cream merchandise (think about a world with out Cherry Garcia!), however acknowledges that their milk consumption comes at a value to the setting; practically 50% of the corporate’s carbon footprint comes from the dairy they buy from farms. They’ve launched an initiative – dubbed Mission Mootopia – to deal with their local weather impacts from their legions of dairy cows. The three-pronged strategy consists of stoking electricity-producing digestors with the 80 kilos of manure every cow produces every single day, feeding their herd with crops that comprise much less synthetics and contribute to wholesome soils, and, lastly, slashing “enteric” emissions from their bovine mates.

That’s the place the seaweed is available in. Each belch and fart from a dairy cow (of which there are, admittedly, many) releases methane into the ambiance. Like all ruminants (together with deer, goats, and sheep), cows have a four-chambered abdomen. The most important chamber – the rumen – accommodates microbes that break down meals, producing as a lot as 50 quarts of gasoline an hour within the course of, most of which is launched by belching. To scale back that belching, Ben and Jerry’s is working with an organization known as Blue Ocean Barns that produces a seaweed complement, Brominata, comprised of dehydrated purple seaweed grown in tanks in San Diego and Hawaii. Research present that including simply 3 ounces of seaweed to a cow’s weight loss plan can scale back methane emissions by 82%. Cows additionally lose vitality after they belch – about 12%  – so these dietary supplements are a win for farmers too, who will want much less feed to nourish their animals. Ben and Jerry’s is trialing Brominata – which has been accepted on the market by the California Division of Meals and Agriculture – on a Vermont dairy farm that gives milk for his or her merchandise. 

However, seaweed isn’t the one dietary different being examined for its methane-reduction capacities: garlic and citrus extracts and mixes of inexperienced tea and oregano have confirmed profitable as nicely. The sale of the feed additive Bovaer was additionally accepted on the market in Brazil – the world’s largest beef exporter – and Chile in 2021. The long-awaited product accommodates the natural compound 3-NOP, which reduces methane by 30% and might be fed to cows, goats, and sheep. Additionally in 2021, Starbucks introduced that they might be sourcing milk from cows fed Agolin: a mix of plant extracts, together with coriander seed oil and wild carrot that reduces enteric emissions by about 11%. 

The espresso large, like many firms, is probably going responding to strain from shoppers to deal with sustainability of their practices. In keeping with a 2021 research, 60% of shoppers fee sustainability as an essential standards when buying merchandise. “A considerable portion of shoppers are presently keen to pay for sustainability,” mentioned Shikha Jain, creator of the research, “demonstrating that there’s a marketplace for ‘mission-driven inexperienced’ firms and why we see an increase in sustainable firms world wide.” Ben and Jerry’s has already proven themselves as a frontrunner in sustainability – with their strikes in direction of ditching petroleum-based plastic of their packaging, putting in photo voltaic panels at their Vermont manufacturing facility, and introducing vegan ice cream flavors, amongst different initiatives – and tackling methane emissions is the subsequent step. Jenna Evans, world sustainability supervisor for Ben & Jerry’s, agrees that firms have to straight deal with their emissions. “I can’t go buy carbon offsets from a forestry venture in Panama that has nothing to do with making ice cream,” mentioned Evans in an interview with Quick Firm. “I’ve to make direct reductions in our ice cream provide chain.”

Mission Mootopia will start with 15 farms within the U.S. and the Netherlands that produce milk for Ben and Jerry’s. The corporate intends on making their findings on Brominata public so different dairy farms and corporations can profit, and hopes that by 2024, these 15 farms will emit solely half the business common of greenhouse gases for dairy farms. So, sometime quickly, you’ll be capable of take pleasure in a pint of Half-Baked with a aspect of seaweed.