Symbrosia's Alexai Makes Meat Future Proof: How to Reduce the Greenhouse Gas emissions of Livestock by 90%

Hint: The solution to our problems of cattle production on land comes from the sea

August 4, 2020

Symbrosia

Symbrosia is solving climate change with the world's mightiest seaweed by reducing methane production from cows by over 90%

Contributors:

Lex Kiefhaber, Anthony Noto

Every so often we find innovators creating fantastically elegant solutions to equally fantastically huge problems. In this episode we take a journey into the ocean to discover a remedy for what is a distinctly terrestrial problem: the greenhouse gasses produced by dairy and beef cows.

Scientist and entrepreneur Alexia has isolated a strain of seaweed which reduces the methane output from cows (burps, not farts, FYI) by over 90% by adding just 0.2% of their seaweed extract to the cow's feed. Turns out, what we needed all along was a surf and turf mindset. 

She and her team are building the operational skillset needed to harvest this seaweed, which as you'll hear is tricky in its own right (warning: many strained metaphors ahead) because it's lifecycle is akin to a kaleidoscope and you need to catch it at just the right moment in order to unlock it's de-gasifying properties. Tune in as we venture to Hawaii to learn from Alexia the secrets of seaweed cultivation, developing a supply chain in the states, getting farmers to embrace the future, and turning cows from systemic threat to sustainable food source. 

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