Cows that make milk make methane gas and that gas is leading to more greenhouse gas emissions. One of the market solutions to reducing methane gas from cow farts and manure is a new biotech product marketed as Bovaer. The product, developed by DSM Firmenich from Maastricht, Holland says that when fed to a cow in their feed, when Bovaer gets to the cow’s rumen, it creates more microbes to help break down food. Like eating a probiotic.

Just ¼ teaspoon in a cow’s daily feed takes effect in as little as 30 minutes. As it acts, Bovaer is safely broken down into compounds already naturally present in the rumen, advertises the company. Less methane gas is produced in the process.

Bovaer, they say, is the most extensively studied and scientifically proven solution to the challenge of burped methane to date — “with more than 130 on-farms trials in 20 countries and more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific studies. In every case, it has proven safe for consumer, farmer and animal, having no impact on milk production or reproduction.”

Indeed, you can find clinical trials online from the United States (Penn State) and Canada (University of Alberta) where researchers report in the US and Canada significantly less methane production in dairy cows that are given the supplement, with the scientific name 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP).

In the UPenn study, “Administration of 3-NOP via the TMR at a concentration of 60 mg/kg of feed DM decreased daily enteric CH₄ emission by 26% in early-lactation dairy cows. The enteric CH₄ yield decreased by 21%, and CH₄ emission intensity was decreased by 25%. Dry matter intake was lower in 3-NOP cows (by 5%), but ECM production was not affected, which resulted in increased ECM feed efficiency compared with CON cows.

Shoppers in the UK upon learning that their milk contains Bovaer are pouring their milk into the toilet. It’s caused a stir on social media such as in Facebook groups where people are voicing their concerns about an untested product – is it safe for humans to eat byproducts of Bovaer?

Arla Foods, owner of the UK’s biggest dairy co-operative said on 26 November it will going to start using the supplement in its milk. Arla said it will work with grocery giants Aldi, Morrisons and Tesco to trial the use of the feed additive known as Bovaer across 30 British farms.

British shoppers threaten to boycott all three supermarkets and Arla brands, along with Lurpak butter.

“Bovaer is a relatively simple chemical that is broken down in part of cows’ stomachs, where it also inhibits a specific enzyme that produces methane,” says Prof Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. “Because it is broken down quickly, it is not absorbed whole and is not present in milk; it indirectly increases the fat content because substances that would have been converted to methanol are instead converted to fats.

“Worries over new technologies are nothing new. However, the use of food additives is quite strictly controlled in the UK and Europe,” he notes. You can’t just add anything to the food chain without safety testing (although it appears you can claim what you like on social media).

“Despite extensive testing in multiple countries; there is no evidence that Bovaer causes cancer (as it does not damage DNA) or that it is dangerous to consume milk or other products from cows treated with it. Neither does Bovaer prevent other methods of reducing methane emissions from cattle, such as selective breeding.

“One can’t directly compare the everyday use of Bovaer and the potential risks from its use in concentrated form. For example, Bovaer is claimed to be an irritant to the eyes and skin and potentially harmful by inhalation, but common salt is also an irritant to the eyes and skin, and water is clearly potentially harmful by inhalation.

“Context is extremely important when assessing risk, but entirely missing from the social media videos on this topic.”

One solution to industrial food is finding raw milk, though it is illegal to buy and sell raw milk in Canada and the United States, it is possible for communities to self organize and “share” milk this way.

I’d assume, just in general here, that if the community of milk drinkers want to be upset about something, they should look to cow hormones, and antibiotics fed to cows. This may be a bigger reason to be concerned.

States Where Raw Milk is Legal on Producing Farms

It’s against the law to buy and sell raw milk in Canada, and has been since 1991, when the federal government banned its sale due to concerns of food-borne illnesses. Pasteurization is a process that involves heating raw milk to at least 63 C to kill harmful bacteria, such as salmonella and E. coli.

Twelve of those states—California, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, Arizona, and Connecticut—allow farm sales of raw milk with no license. The rest require a license to sell on the farm.

Some people when the can drink goat, sheep and camel milk.

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Ben-Gurion University in Israel has successfully manipulated a cow’s microbiome for the first time. By learning to control the microbiome, scientists can prevent cows from emitting methane, one of the most serious greenhouse gases. Prof. Itzhak Mizrahi’s findings were published late last month in Nature Communications.

The microbiome is an underexplored area scientifically, yet it exerts great control over many aspects of animal and human physical systems. Microbes begin to be introduced at birth and produce a unique microbiome which then evolves over time.

Mizrahi and his group have been running a three-year experiment with a group of 50 cows. The cows were divided into two groups. One group gave birth naturally, and the other gave birth through cesarean section. That difference was enough to change the development and composition of the microbiome of the cows from each group.

This finding essentially enabled the development of an algorithm to predict the microbiome development: an algorithm that will predict how the microbiomes evolve over time based on its present composition together with Prof. Eran Halperin’s group at UCLA in the United States.

“Now that we know we can influence the microbiome development, we can use this knowledge to modulate microbiome composition to lower the environmental impact of cows on our planet by guiding them to our desired outcomes,” says Mizrahi.

Prof. Mizrahi has investigated the microbiome of cows, fish and other species to prepare us for a world shaped by climate change. Reducing methane emissions from cows will reduce global warming. Engineering healthier fish, which is another of Mizrahi’s projects, is especially important as the oceans empty of fish and aquaculture becomes the major source of seafood.

Prof. Mizrahi is a member of the Department of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and a member of the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN). Earlier this year, he was awarded an ERC consolidator grant and a DIP grant.

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Meat consumption in Iran has soared by 60 percent since 2005, according to the Omega Research Team (ORT), so the group is trying to convince locals to embrace Meatless Mondays. But for many, meat isn’t a choice.

A concept originally introduced by the U.S. Food Administration during the first World War was revived as “Meatless Mondays” in 2003 and has since become a global phenomenon.

Originally designed to curb illnesses associated with excess meat consumption, the movement has since been embraced by environmentalists as well in an effort to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and costs of global meat production.

In Iran, meat consumption in general has been on the rise since 2005, which is why Tehran-based ORT has initiated a campaign to convince Iranians to curb their meat habit by eating vegetarian meals on Mondays.

Working with nutritionists, scientists along with government and private sector agencies, ORT hopes to reach the public through a website and dedicated social media campaign.

“Meatless Monday is an opportunity for Iranians to join a global movement in a friendly and scientific atmosphere,” said President Shayan Mohammad Moradi, who added that the benefits for individuals, societies and countries which take part in this movement are promising.

“The Middle East is facing sharp increases in meat consumption that have the potential to significantly harm our health and the environment. We urge Iranians and our other Middle East neighbors to join the Meatless Monday community for a healthier world.”

However, for some Iranians, cutting back on meat is not a choice. Since the U.S. imposed rigorous sanctions because of the Islamic country’s insistence that it should be able to develop nuclear power, meat has become too expensive for many people.

Chicken is considered by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to be a more environmentally and health-friendly alternative to beef and pork, but even that is too expensive for some Iranians, who are turning to Aubergine instead.

Also, though this is a worthwhile campaign that comes complete with useful recipes, and answers to frequently asked nutrition questions, UNEP says that Meatless Mondays won’t save the planet.

Instead, they are asking people to cut their meat consumption by half.

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Biogas, primarily a mixture of carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen, is produced by decomposing organic matter.  Add oxygen and create a high-efficiency fuel for heating or to convert into electricity. The compressible gas can also be used to power motor vehicles.

General Electric (GE) just announced sale of its Jenbacher J312 engine to a landfill gas-to-energy project operated by Averda International in Naameh, Lebanon, near Beirut. The pilot scale project will generate approximately 637 kW of power and can be expanded to take full advantage of this landfill, the largest controlled dumpsite in Lebanon. The project will become operational by year end.

“The potential benefit of the Naameh project is that it could encourage other landfill sites to use the gas (that is currently being flared) for conversion to electricity. The contribution of the project to the environment and the energy sector makes it a great value to the community,” said Nabil Habayeb, GE president and CEO for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region.

Pakistan’s project establishes an anaerobic digestion facility in Landhi Cattle Colony region that will convert a daily stream of 4,200 tons of animal waste and 700 tons of food waste into biogas which can generate up to 30 MW of power. The project will be delivered in two phases, each providing 15 MW of capacity.

Karachi Electric Supply Company, one of the project developers, said in a press release that this is the first time that renewable energy will be utilized on a commercial scale in Pakistan.

“This project is a prime example of how innovation can be used to tackle some of Pakistan’s most pressing development issues,” Mouayed Makhlouf, International Finance Corporations (IFC) Director for the Middle East and North Africa told Biomass Magazine.  In addition to providing seed capital, IFC is advising the company on plant development.

Solar springs to mind as the optimal energy producer in the sunny, arid Middle East. There is tremendous  untapped potential for generating biogas by exploiting waste generated by industry and agriculture, municipal solid wastes, and sewage.

Municipal solid waste is an optimal feedstock for anaerobic digestion because on average, over 50% of Middle Eastern municipal waste consists of biodegradable, organic material. Anaerobic digestion of organic waste is an environmentally positive method of recycling biodegradable materials while producing economical energy as a byproduct.

Diverting waste from traditional dumpsites and instead, routing it to plants and controlled landfills which can convert it into biogas (and biomass) transforms a liability into an asset. Biogas technology is well suited for further exploitation in this region as both a remedy for urbanization and a producer of clean energy.

Image of burning corn from Shutterstock

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For a resource-poor country still recovering from the aftermath of the March 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, this sounds almost too good to be true. But methane hydrate mining carries unique risks which could make this one of the most dangerous sources of energy.
Methane hydrates are also called methane clathrates. They consist of molecules of methane (CH₄) trapped in a crystalline cage of water (H2O) molecules.  The substance somewhat resembles water ice but it forms only under the extremely high pressures and cold temperatures of the deep ocean floor and, unlike water ice, methane hydrate ice is flammable and prone to explosive sublimation.

Extracting methane (the primary component in natural gas) from methane hydrates is difficult because such deposits only occur in very deep water.  The Japanese drilling ship Chikyu, also called Godzilla-maru for its enormous size and 100 meter tall drilling derrek, performed its methane extraction about 50 miles offshore from Japan’s Atsumi peninsula 300 meters (1000 feet) beneath the Pacific’s surface.

Mining methane hydrates is risky because these are unstable solids. It is possible that BP’s 2010 deepwater horizon blow out which dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by the explosive sublimation of a methane hydrate deposit.

It is also possible that mining methane hydrates near the edge of continental slopes may cause landslides and trigger tsunamis. A third risk of methane hydrates is their global warming potential. Any methane escaping from such deposits is 21 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.  Burning the methane trapped in undersea deposits would release twice as much carbon dioxide as all of the world’s coal, oil, oil-shale and gas deposits.

Given Japan’s energy shortage it is understandable that its government might want to explore risky options such as undersea methane hydrate deposits, but we need to carefully weigh the risks against the benefits.

Public domain image of burning methane hydrate ice provided by the US Geological Survey.

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Only, this 1,700 gigaton bomb has not been accounted for in prediction models. That a huge concentration of latent ice-age old carbon poses potential danger not just to humanity and to other species but to the roads, pipelines and buildings lying above it has been neglected, said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. A suggested three-pronged course of action will hopefully change that.

A Thawing Bomb

“Permafrost is one of the keys to the planet’s future because it contains large stores of frozen organic matter that, if thawed and released into the atmosphere, would amplify current global warming and propel us to a warmer world,” said Steiner.

“Its potential impact on the climate, ecosystems and infrastructure has been neglected for too long,” he added.

The UNEP report, Policy Implications of Warming Permafrost was designed to spur dialogue among climate-treaty negotiators, policy makers and the general public as they prepare to create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that expires this year. It also hacks a path to the way forward, instead of dropping concerned parties in an alarmist cloud.

Three proactive steps 

First, the report’s authors recommend that the IPCC – the official voice of climate change – commission a special report that reveals the potential impact that carbon released from 30-85% of the permafrost might have on the environment, which would in turn support emergent (and enormously important) policy decisions.

Then, northern countries, especially Russia, Canada, China and the United States, should assume responsibility for permafrost monitoring stations that share data across a network. “The International Permafrost Association should continue to coordinate development and the national networks should remain part of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost,” UNEP urges.

And finally, it behooves these nations to prepare for the worst. Structural damages, habitat destruction, migration, longer growing seasons, and increased risk of fire are just a few potential consequences.

Infrastructure collapse

But the biggest fear for those of us shy of oil spills, we already have an idea of what will happen if pipelines laid over this territory are destabilized as a result of the shifting ground.

“Infrastructure failure can have dramatic environmental consequences, as seen in the 1994 breakdown of the pipeline to the Vozei oilfield in Northern Russia, which resulted in a spill of 160,000 tonnes of oil, the world’s largest terrestrial oil spill,” UNEP reports.

These events are always financially crippling, politically disastrous, and environmentally criminal, which is powerful ammunition for the likes of Bill McKibben and the 350.org (global) crowd, as well as other activists, moviemakers and indigenous people who are determined to fell the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

For a much more detailed and scientific analysis of the permafrost bomb, we beg you to visit the UNEP website.

Image of old Russian bomb in snow, Shutterstock

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The quest for construction materials with low environmental impact is leading product developers to new pastures. Literally, in the case of Noble Environmental Technologies Corporation, whose ECORE line of bio-based panels are made from cow poop. American farms produce an estimated 2 trillion pounds of manure each year (comparable stats for Middle East ranchers not readily available).

The smartest way to turn a buck is to convert a problem into a solution that gets you paid both coming and going: get paid to collect a waste (or buy it at deep discount over alternative raw material), and then convert that waste into a resale product.

Methane and nitrous oxide, major greenhouse gases (GHG), are offshoots from livestock manure.  Linking manure to a reuse that economically satisfies a developing market need is the best pairing of disparate elements since the invention of the peanut butter cup.

This company’s line of wall boards and panels are made from a blend of cellulose sources including plant fiber, recycled cardboard, old newsprint, and a not-so-secret ingredient: bovine processed fibers (BPFs).  BPFs are fibers leftover from anaerobic digestion tanks used to harvest methane from cow manure.  This secondary waste product (from the primary manure waste) contains lignin and proteins that make it prime feedstock for a variety of bio-based applications.

BPFs and other cellulose fibers can be blended with water into a sludge that’s formable in molds bespoke to each end product, using low energy processing techniques. ECOR® panels can be painted, veneered, and laminated or used as a sandwich core for added structure to construct furniture and cabinetry.  It can be molded into almost limitless shapes and used as interior surface finishes, signs, displays and decorations.

Watch their snappy video to better understand the manufacturing potential of the stuff:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/zp__59Abrhs[/youtube]

These highly versatile, three-dimensional engineered molded fiber (3dEMF) panel products are ideally manufactured near the source of low-cost and underutilized raw materials.

Manure is a  waste product readily available throughout the developing world: the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has a strong animal population. The livestock sector, specifically sheep, goats and camels, plays an important role in national economies, and the poultry sector is growing exponentially.

Animal waste is also a valuable source of nutrients and renewable energy (biogas) on a community level, however, most of the waste is collected in lagoons or left to decompose in open air, presenting sizable environmental hazard.

If a larger market for BPFs is created, sale of manure could someday represent a supplemental revenue stream for farmers.  Potentially a triple-bottom-line darling: establishing processing plants close to manure sources would create jobs, expand availability of the green building material, and be part of a larger strategy to reduce GHG emissions.  Calling all  investors: contact Noble Environmental Technologies Corporation for consultation or partnership in opening MENA’s first poop panel factory.

Image of a cow pie by Shutterstock

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Israel’s Largest Biogas Plant

Owned by Eco Energy, the $2.6 million Be’er Tuviya plant is not the first in Israel that will convert the energy of farm animals to biogas, but it is the largest.

Inaugurated last Monday, with local and national officials there to celebrate the event, the 4MW facility is expected to provide enough energy to power up to 6,000 homes – giving both the strained national grid.

The Be’er Tuviya Regional Council claims that biogas facilities also help to spare the environment by diverting livestock and poultry effluent from waterways and plugging odors, which attract flies.

The Manure will be collected from farms throughout the country and shipped in closed containers. Upon reaching Be’er Tuviya, it will be pasteurized and then stored in air-tight concrete tanks, where it will produce methane. This in turn will be used to generate electricity.

Any leftovers can be used as fertilizer.

Positive Environmental Impact

“We saw that in Ramat Hagolan, the possibility to operate bed and breakfasts in moshavim, made possible only after the activation of a facility that solved the problem of odors and flies from barns,” said Shay Levy, Eco Energy’s owner.

The new plant also helps to mitigate global warming and climate change.

“One cow can produce enough manure in one day to generate three kilowatt hours of electricity,” according to Wikipedia, and “only 2.4 kilowatt hours of electricity are needed to power a single one hundred watt light bulb for one day.”

Converting cow manure into methane biogas could also reduce global warming gases by 99 million metric tons or four percent, according to the same source.

Image: Dairy cows, Shutterstock

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Even though roughly 925 million people throughout the world go hungry every year, in that same time, we throw away up to 220 million tons of food. Moved to end this shocking waste in Lebanon at least, Lamia El-Sayed, a graphic designer based in Beirut, did what many forward thinking people do these days and started a Facebook cause page. It is called “Save the Grace.” 

Comprised of a team of 10, Save the Grace approaches restaurants, bakeries, shops and even individual families throughout Lebanon and encourages them to donate their leftover food.

This food is then distributed to needy families, including some 10,000 or more Syrian refugees who have fled their home country’s ongoing bloodbath. Not only are they diverting good food diverted from landfills, where it would otherwise produce a pile of methane, but Save the Grace is also helping to satiate growling bellies.

Although they only formed just before the onset of Ramadan 2012, the team has already managed to convince five groups/individuals to donate their food so far. This turned out to be a fortunate coincidence since adherents of Islam are on their best behavior during the holy month.

However, Ghadi Joudi, the manager of a bakery in Koreitem that donates food to Save the Grace  wants to encourage people to extend their charitable behavior to every month of the year.

“It’s the month of giving for sure,” she says. “But we should be giving all year long. It’s a pity it’s not happening other times of the year.”

Please visit The Daily Star to learn more about this honorable initiative.

The post Save the Grace Combats Lebanon’s Year-Round Food Waste appeared first on Green Prophet.

One cow produces up to 120kg of methane each year, and there are 1.5 billion of them on the planet. This is serious, because as we demonstrated in Giant Plumes of Gurgling Methane Could Fastrack Planetary Warming, methane is 21 times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, and by 2050, livestock production is expected to double. 

Epic emissions

The recent Forbes report pointed out that livestock production is a human invention that has never previously endangered the planet’s health. But now it has reached epic proportions. So epic that we produce more emissions by growing cows for food than the entire transportation industry combined.

At the same time, we have destroyed our planet’s ability to synthesize all of the extra carbon by clearing our forests. This coupled with exponential population growth (more cars and more cows) and government apathy, and we are heading straight for the tipping point of climate change that scientists warned we’ll hit if carbon emissions remain the same.

Here’s what I want to know: are we really ready to cause a mass extinction not only of humans but thousands of other species for the sake of burgers? Is beef so good that we can’t cut back? Naturally this oversimplifies the matter since global warming has many other causes, but breaking it down in this way does shed light on our self-destructive tendencies.

Two juicy burgers a week

The World Cancer Research Fund recommends that on average, people should eat no more than 11oz of beef a week. That’s the equivalent of two fat, juicy burgers. More than that, and the risk of bowel cancer increases along with a host of other health ailments. By contrast, people who eat a tiny amount of beef are rewarded with essential nutrients, including iron.

While the MENA region does not produce nearly as much beef as India, Brazil, China or the United States, awareness of the health and climate consequences has not been given priority in this region even as demand grows.

Recent research demonstrates how waistlines in the Gulf States in particular have been expanding since locals have taken a tragic liking to western-style fast food chains. Supply meets demand. Will we let it kill us?

Image credit: Cut of Prime Beef, Shutterstock

More on Meat:

Meat Glue: It’s Everywhere But We Don’t Know it

Meat Glue: The Food Industry’s Dirty Secret

420 Cow Brain Seizure in Egypt Deprives Local of Tasty Dish

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