This an exciting time, because many of the potential policy changes that the major parties would not elaborate on before, are now coming to the forefront because of a Labor commitment towards emissions. The climate change scuffles are burning hot in Canberra, as the major political parties take aim at each other. However, we can learn from New Zealand, where the methane or CH4 that cattle produce seems to have ended up as the primary target, as a key climate change solution. There seems to be a now desperate global swell to establish and capitalise on sometimes vague new technologies, that may also ultimately attempt to get rid of livestock farming, by adulterating the biome of the cow.
Australian politicians at loggerheads on Zero Net Emissions
According to this article, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said his party wants the country to emit no more greenhouses gases that it uses in 30 years' time. Labor has affirmed its commitment to a net zero emissions target by 2050, without detailing costings or economic modelling. According to another article, the three pillars of Labor's new policy platform are the 2050 target, banning Kyoto carry-over credits and rejecting taxpayer funds for coal-fired power plants.“The majority of Australians want us to take action on greenhouse gas emissions and we're going to do so,” said Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon.
However, there is great concern from multiple individuals about the agriculture sector and coal mining sector.
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce believes this policy will end up destroying Australian industries like farming and mining, and believes voters - especially regional - will not support it.
The same Daily Mail article had a poll with the majority of respondents voting No. “The dairy industry, the pig industry, the beef industry, your own leader says it - this will come across all sectors,” Barnaby raged against Joel in an interview on Sunrise. Joel hit back saying that both the National Farmers Federation and Meat And Livestock Australia have committed to net zero by 2030. Sunrise host David Koch was forced to abruptly shut down the out of control interview. Watch the full 3 minute interview here.
National Farmers’ Federation CEO Tony Maher set the record straight and said that they will be “trending towards carbon neutrality by 2030”, as part of their roadmap. He was asked about agriculture being hurt, but his answer was unsatisfactory.
Another article written by Niall Blair elaborate on why Meat and Livestock Australia reported that a net zero red meat sector is achievable
by 2030; it includes changing feed sources for cattle and offsetting emissions by planting trees and pastures/crop on farm that sequester carbon. It seems to include unlocking billions of dollars from government and industry funds, paid to farmers to help improve their natural capital, their soil, vegetation and farming practices, research etc. Niall Blair was the NSW minister who signed off on the new NSW raw milk amendments and restrictions on ‘bath milk’. He seems to think that net zero emissions provides nothing but opportunities for our farmers and food security for this nation. The same article has a video where Scott Morrison talks in vague terms of investment in technology to solve emissions pressures.
New Greens leader Adam Brandt reportedly fears pursuing net zero emissions by 2050 could be too late. He has introduced a new bill to make coal, oil and gas companies pay for the damage their products have caused Australians, just as asbestos and tobacco firms have done in the past. His legislation would make fossil fuel companies liable for environmental damage, and pave the way for damage payments to survivors of the recent bushfires. Keep reading…
Archaebacteria and beneficial methane producing strains
Methane producing bacteria is actually our friend in good health.
““All disease begins in the gut.” ”
The rumen is home to billions of different microbes, including bacteria, protists, fungi, and viruses. These many different rumen microbes form a complex community of organisms that interact, aiding the animal in digesting its food.
Microbes in the rumen produce stinky organic acids. The billions of microbes in the rumen quickly use up all the oxygen, and due of lack of oxygen, the rumen is anaerobic. When oxygen is lacking, microbes must get their energy from anaerobic respiration or from fermentation. In anaerobic respiration, microbes ‘breathe’ compounds other than oxygen for energy. Fermentation is the breaking down of organic molecules into smaller molecules such as organic acids that stink. One of the effects of life without oxygen is that methane is produced. Methane is a gas produced by certain microbes called methanogens. Methanogens are members of the Archaea.
Last year raw milk educator Mark McAfee from California, gave a great presentation at the LiveAware 2019 conference, speaking on single-celled organisms called archaeabacteria. He described them as the first forms of life on earth. They digest food, create methane and make their home in the gut of mammals like humans and cattle. Wikipedia describes them as mutualistic or commensal, which means they are good or beneficial bacteria. There are no known examples of archaeal pathogens or parasites. The methanogens (methane producing strains) inhabit the gastrointestinal tract in humans and ruminants, where their vast numbers aid digestion in intestinal biodigesters. In the presentation Mark joked that breaking wind is actually a sign that we “are still alive and good to go”, which ironically is true. He explained that we evolved from and are part of the earth’s biome, the archaea. We are not seperate from it. However, the more we move away from that, the sicker we get, he said. Mark is surprised by the remarkable similarities between the life under the soil - the bacteria and roots - and the biome in our intestines; they are similar life forms that are connected and essential for life. Mark also described that raw milk contains the “seeds of life” with 700 diverse kinds of bacteria, and the food to give the bacteria a good start; to colonise in the intestines of the human baby and the calf.
It is the DNA of bacteria that drive our genomics and genetic behaviour.
The cells of mammals and bacteria actually cross-communicate at cellular level in a sophisticated language called chemistry. Both the human cells, and the cells of cattle on their own don’t function well, unless they have all the influence of the powerful genomic information from the biome, which shares, directs and tells them what to do.
We already know that when humans become too ‘clean’ and we loose our intestinal bacteria, we become “an autoimmune mess”. To be a thriving species, both us and ruminants need beneficial bacteria to avoid decline. Some of the worst biome killers are antibiotics, sterilised and processed foods, lack of breast feeding, herbicides with antibacterial properties, bacteria phobia etc.
Bacteria want to live. It is in their nature to resist, adapt and overcome to support life on earth, especially when the beneficial ones dominate many terrains.
Loss of load and biodiversity of gut bacteria drives inflammation and disease. All disease begins in the gut. Similarly for cattle, all disease beings in the rumen.
This research shows that host genetics and the rumen microbiome jointly associate with methane emissions in dairy cows. Mitigation to decrease CH4 production by cattle to date (October 2018) had been largely unsuccessful, as the available measures are temporary and not cumulative. Large international research approaches target the rumen microbial communities through feed additives (chemical or biological), feed formulations, and anti-methanogen vaccines. However, rumen microbial species are known for rapid adaptation to changes in the substrate results in resistance to treatments. CH4 production can return to pre-treatment levels.
But what about persistent and long term feeding of livestock methane emissions reduction supplements, along with other GMO livestock feeds that may potentially adulterate the biome and ultimately alter the integrity of livestock farming?
Image: this image questions if more is being targeted than what is claimed?
New Zealand leads on cattle methane emission reductions, by embracing seaweed and agriculture as key climate change solutions?
From red seaweed to climate-smart cows: New Zealand leads the fight against methane, said a recent article.
New Zealand is currently leading the way to reduce the release of methane from cows and sheep. Methane has also found itself in the crosshairs of New Zealand climate action policy. Funds have been thrown at different scientists around the country to ‘run free’ with their “best and brightest ideas to lower emissions”. In November, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, pushed the Zero Carbon Act through parliament. They are to reduce their carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and meet commitments under the Paris climate accords. They will also establish a climate change commission and ensure future government’s plan and budget for adaption and mitigation. The reduction target have two seperate plans. One for biogenic methane, or that which is produced by living organisms, and another for all other greenhouse gases. A path to carbon neutrality is at the heart of the marketing, but the action taken seem to be quite a different thing…
According to this article, agriculture is supposedly part of the solution.
Methane in particular is targeted…
"Under the zero carbon legislation, the methane targets are separated out from other greenhouse gases, with the goal of reducing biogenic methane by 10% by 2030, and 24-47% by 2050."
The Cawthron Institute was awarded government funding to cultivate and research a red native seaweed known as Asparagopsis armata. NZ agriculture minister, Damien O’Connor has said if this seaweed is able to be mass produced, it could be a “game-changer for farmers here and around the world” as it has been proven to reduce stock methane emissions by as much as 80% when added as a feed supplement at quantities as low as 2%. “Australian research estimates that if just 10% of global ruminant producers adopted Asparagopsis as an additive to feed their livestock, it would have the same impact for our climate as removing 50 million cars from the world’s roads,” he also reportedly said.
New Asparagopsis Seaweed Rush to Capitalise
CH4 Global is another New Zealand company who enjoys generous funding - half a million dollars in Provincial Growth Fund grants - in this case, to make New Zealand the epicentre of a new seaweed rush.
A researcher - who previously worked for the CSIRO Australia’s national science research agency to discover which seaweed species would have the greatest impact on ruminant methane emissions - now also experiments with a particular pink-red algae with antibacterial properties called Asparagosis. The ratio given to cows seems very significant according to a chart illustrating varying ‘effectiveness’. At or just above two per cent appears to be the optimal amount - the study found that when Asparagopsis made up 10 per cent of the animal's diet, the cattle had more trouble digesting. The researchers are still working to determine the dynamics, but the basic summary seems to be that it functions as an enzyme inhibitor, stopping the processes that produce methane in the animal’s specialised gut. Ruminants utilise bacteria, protozoa, yeasts and fungi in the stomachs to break down plant cellulose. The sugars that results from the microbial fermentation are by-products like lactate and propionate - which help produce good milk - and methane are created. In the article, the researcher admits that when he first stumbled across the Asparagopsis while working at the CSIRO, his first test indicated complete elimination of methane emissions.
Asparagopsis Antibacterial Activity!
According to an Australian study, extracts of the seaweed Asparagopsis armata do have antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus spp. strains. However, not all e.coli and other microbes are harmful. Many are commensal, beneficial and even essential. They protect the rumen, secures the health of the animal and enables it to enjoy the nutrients in its feed. The slow killing of these microbes are bad news. What about the potential for the creation of antibiotic-resitant microbes in the rumen in the process, as rumen microbes become stressed? This would be a recipe for disaster for cows that produce raw drinking milk (RDM).
This paper cautions that the practice of supplementing cattle feed with seaweed may not be a realistic strategy to battle climate change, yet research steams ahead in order to create new industries that can capitalise on new trends, which may be the main reason behind attempting to reduce livestock methane emissions… read more here. Cattle methane emissions is part of a natural cycle, but methane released from deep earth fracking is not…
The CSIRO feed additive now seems to be known as FutureFeed. According to the CSIRO research, by adding a small dosage of Asparagopsis to the cow’s diet, methane emissions could be reduced to up to 99%.
Another study claimed over 50% but found that "cows fed seaweed at one per cent of their total feed ate more than one-third less and produced two-thirds less methane. But they gained almost 10kg less than those that ate no seaweed. Milk production dropped by 11.6 per cent and milk protein levels also fell (source)."
Vaccines, drugs, breeding, food additives, enzyme inhibitors etc. The war against the gut microbes of cows?
According to this BBC article, Australian scientists had a go in the 1990s to make drugs that suppress the methanogens (a term for any microbe manufacturing methane), but were unsuccessful, but new organisations are confident in their methods. The article describes that a lot have been done over the past 20 years to reduce the environmental footprint of milk and meat production. There has been breeding of low methane animals, diet changes, adding more legumes and oils, adding seaweed to the diet, attaching a cow’s nose ring to convert the exhaled methane into carbon dioxide, enzyme inhibitors, and as feed additives, etc. Feed additives such as ionophores - already used in some parts of the world to boost weight gain in animals - could also be used to inhibit methane-production. However, there are negative
consequences because in agriculture they are classed as antibiotics; they help to fuel drug resistance in bacteria.
Another additive on offer is 3-Nitrooxypropanol. A new study shows it reduces methane emissions by 25%. Often referred to as 3-NOP, the compound inhibits an enzyme that is crucial to the final stage of methane synthesis in a cow's rumen.
The BBC article concluded by saying that regardless of approach, “messing with the pattern of microbial life in the gut will alter its ecology – possibly with unforeseen consequences. The gut microbiome is closely linked to health, and changing it can increase the risk of disease.”
The research, and desire to shift the focus on other emissions - instead of the ones who are of real significance - have played a part in losing sight of priorities. The Australian government is looking for solutions to ease emissions pressure, and for some sectors to continue making profits.
Unnatural man-made emissions:
coal burning
natural gas (which is largely methane), which often escapes in large volumes where it is extracted from deep earth
mining for the minerals that results in the making of synthetic fertilisers used in agriculture
Natural emissions that is part of natural cycles:
carbon released from living plants and the soil through bushfires
methane and other gasses produced by ruminants like cattle
methane released from wetlands and rice paddies
Investment & Planning to Capitalise no matter the costs
Meat, a Threat to our Planet? is a British documentary that has been on Australian free to air television more than once recently. It demonstrates that intensive industrial agriculture has created a disgusting and unpalatable scene that many consumers object to. In the documentary, Liz Bonnin describes that “some of the biggest meat companies in the world are now investing in cultured meat”. Has big meat interests in Australia also invested into fake meat grown in a lab to protect their profits? We know that multiple international dairy conglomerates have already diversified with alternative plant-based milks like almond, soy, oat etc. to protect their falling profits. This article reveals that Australian business and industry groups, along with all the states and territories and more than 70 other countries, support such a target as the net zero emissions by 2050. It seems that there has been much global manoeuvring to capitalise on the new but sometimes vague and unworkable ‘solutions’, as well as the plant-based and alternative diets made to look like lucrative investments.
Consumer choice and the consumer’s health have been sacrificed for profit, again.
Alternative food production systems like regenerative and biological farming, more nature friendly and sustainable farming, and high demand products like raw drinking milk continues to be ignored in Australia. There are many methane emitters on this planet. There is little doubt that humans emit methane, because we often fart. Wetlands and rice paddy fields are other huge methane emitters, but right now there seems to be more interest in targeting the microbiome of ruminants… under the guise of all things climate and emissions related… Who cares about the long term welfare of the animals, and the long term viability of livestock farming?
If Scott Morrison’s government install policy or systems that would demand reduction in cattle methane emissions, the raw milk movement will suffer the consequences, in one way or another.
Abundant beneficial microbes in the rumen is the foundation of food safety of raw drinking milk (RMD), a highly respected dairy scientist assured this author. It is absolutely vital not to adulterate it.
Aboriginal communities will now be part of developing commercial scale Asparagopsis seaweed cultivation and processing in South Australia. According to this article:
“The feed supplement will be suitable for a range of ruminant animals, including dairy cows, beef cattle, goats and sheep. In Australia, the 2.7 million beef feed lot and dairy cow market is estimated at around $2 Billion annually for this product.”
A Major Economic Transition, Disruption & Change: the long term impacts on Australia
This week’s Q&A had fascinating conversations about the impact the corona virus and quarantine are going to have on trade, tourism, travel, hospitality etc. and a healthy relationship between Australia and China. And Australia becoming too dependent on China, when it too is experiencing economic slowdown, soaring debt, and other internal problems, according to writer and journalist Stan Grant. In the bigger picture, this is going to create change for Australia. Watch the full episode here.
Our global economy have become very interconnected, and a number of economic shocks have been huge disruptions to the status quo. It may have long term consequences that create permanent change; this disruption can have benefits. It may create a fertile bedrock for each country or region to grow their own local food for local people in local food economies, as opposed to flooding markets with cheap commodity food imports, that may harm the prospects of local farmers, food producers and consumer choice.
Earlier today, treasurer Josh Frydenberg said of the corona virus outbreaks: "The impact will be more significant than the bushfires, and it plays out more broadly across the Australian economy."
"The Australian economy has been facing a number of economic shocks that have been beyond our control," he said.
"The trade tensions between the United States and China, the ongoing drought, the fires, the flood and now the impact of the coronavirus.”
"Here in Australia, the economic impacts have been significant, as the Prime Minister referred to, not just the tourism and education sectors, which together contribute around $16 billion to the Australian economy, but also agriculture, and the destruction to end-to-end supply chains."
The PM said that economically it was impossible to escape the global ramifications.
"This is not like a global financial crisis. This is a global health crisis," said the PM.
"This is affecting global supply chains. It's affecting the building industry, it's affecting the manufacturing industry, it's affecting our export industry. When planes aren't coming in, planes aren't going out.”
Even the Australian stock market has taken a huge knock.
Net Zero Emissions by 2050 - Minister Angus Taylor
Edit: only a few days after the publication of this article, government announced new investment to reduce emissions. Government is being pressured into net zero emissions targets by 2050. Instead of solar and wind - which the Australian government will be phasing out - it seems government will instead be investing in hydrogen, carbon capture, lithium and new advanced livestock feed supplement. Energy and Emissions Minister Angus Taylor gave a keynote speech at CEDA ‘Future Direction in Energy Technologies’ and will be taking these strategies to the Glasgow COP26 summit.
The problem is that some of the latest supplements to reduce methane in cattle,
also changes the microbiome of the cattle, and may have long term consequences for their health and the long term viability of livestock farming.
Cattle are being scapegoated for what fossil fuels are doing.
This interview shows that what’s in the rumen matters in regenerative farming.
“The microbial life in the stomach of cattle, are the same system as the microbial life in soil, so those two work together,” South African farmer Danie Slabbert said.
Net Zero Emissions and the creation of more disasters? ABARES Outlook 2020
From a certain point of view, we actually need more carbon, but we need it in the right place; in the soil. A large range of different plants, and chemical-free farming practices, help soil microbes to sequester carbon, leading to more nutrient-dense pastures and plants; which means healthier animals and humans. Re-mineralised pastures and plants means stronger immune systems for both cattle and humans.
ABARES commodity forecaster announced on 3 March that growing grains are to lead the way to put dollars back in Australian farmers' pockets, but the last thing we need is more monocultures of grain that depletes the soil carbon and soil microbes, and potentially create more dustbowls in the future. According to ABARES Outlook 2020, the prices paid to dairy farmers are set to fall, which could mean less grazing of pastures, therefore less soil carbon sequestration. What an irony? We are creating our own disasters, and potentially more immune-deficient mammals or even famine, with commodity-focussed agriculture. How blind and stupid can one be? We need more regenerative farming systems like this one at the 4:44 time marker. Also, watch the video below:
"It's not so much about what we eat, but how we farm."https://t.co/26iudJ8Dxi
— Savory Institute (@SavoryInstitute) March 2, 2020
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Is Asparagopsis seaweed the answer to NZ's methane emissions?
