(water bubbling)
- [Narrator] Last month, we sent local video crews
to two very different places,
a beach in Hawaii and a farm in upstate New York.
(sheep bleating)
We were there to see the thing
that connected these two places, 5,000 miles apart.
This stuff, it's a dried seaweed powder.
It's designed to head off a problem
that's brewing in agriculture,
and it could become a valuable commodity around the world.
(sheep bleating)
The two people on opposite ends of this story
are Diana Zlotnikov and Alexia Akbay.
Alexia is a researcher and entrepreneur
based on the island of Hawaii.
Diana is a physician and organic farmer
in Dover Plains, New York.
They live very different lives,
but both are tackling the same problem.
Livestock and climate change.
- Livestock through their digestive process
release methane gas, the super potent greenhouse gas
that has about 28 times the warming capacity
than carbon dioxide.
Through this process,
livestock globally are responsible for eight to 10%
of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
- [Narrator] You might've heard about this.
The news likes to have fun with it.
- Can gassy cows actually contribute to global warming?
- [Narrator] Methane isn't the only problem.
Industrial farming can also produce scary amounts of CO2
and nitrous oxide via fertilizers and other soil treatments.
Diana's farm is different.
It's small and organic and she's obsessed with erasing
its greenhouse footprint.
- The soil can become a carbon sink
that it can sequester carbon in the atmosphere
and securely put it on the ground.
We would do well with the nitrogen gas
because we'll plant nitrogen fixing plants
like legumes, like alfalfa, like clovers.
- [Narrator] But there was one gas that persisted.
The methane coming from her sheep.
Diana tried looking at the herd
in terms of inputs and outputs.
What food's going in might cut down
on the methane going out.
Based on some research,
she tried mixing in garlic, legumes, alfalfa.
It wasn't enough.
- There was nothing significant
which we did at that time to help the situation.
- [Narrator] But halfway across the Pacific,
Alexia had been working on the same problem
and she was tinkering with a very different food.
- You can see here.
So little individual fronds grow up into pompoms.
- [Narrator] Alexia co-founded a startup called Symbrosia.
They're working on a dietary supplement
for livestock like cattle or sheep.
It's made of a locally grown seaweed.
- So we collect the same species
that's called asparagopsis taxiformis.
It's a red, tropical marine, micro algae.
- [Narrator] Feeding algae to livestock
isn't actually a new idea.
In the late 2000's, a Canadian farmer named Joe Dorgan
discovered that his cattle were healthier
and produce more milk when fed local seaweed.
So he began harvesting and processing
a seaweed-based supplement for cattle feed.
Researchers also found that the product
reduced the cattle's methane output.
Further experiments zeroed in on red seaweed
and found that adding it at just 2% of a cow's diet
could reduce it's methane emissions significantly.
- The seaweed acts in two ways to reduce methane.
First, it contributes to a positive like microbiome
in the cow's stomach to reduce methane emissions.
And then it directly stops the synthesis of methane
before it leaves the animal in the form of like a burp.
(liquid bubbling)
- [Narrator] Symbrosia wants to turn red seaweed
into a mass producible commodity.
The team starts by harvesting wild samples
directly from the ocean.
There are a handful of strains in Hawaii,
each with its own valuable traits.
- Take one strain that grows really fast.
And then another strain that has a really high percentage
of the metabolite that reduces methane.
We'll cross breed them into a hybrid strain
and that's kind of like this really great product
to grow in a commercial culture
because it grows fast and it's a high quality product.
- [Narrator] A new strain takes weeks to grow at volume.
The sample starts in a little Petri dish
then graduates to a flask as it multiplies.
From there it levels up to a bag
then moves to outdoor tanks.
After a couple of weeks,
the cultures end their journey in a row of ponds.
- And that's kind of just a continual harvesting model
where we'll siphon off some of the seaweed that we grew,
dry the seaweed and then flake it
and send it off to the end user, the cow.
- [Narrator] Last year,
Alexia found herself with a few promising strains.
What she needed next was an actual road test on a farm,
which sends us back to New York.
- Symbrosia was actively recruiting farms to become partners
that can try the product in the field on the farm.
- [Narrator] With the help of researchers
at the USDA and Cornell,
Diana and Alexia put together an experiment.
- A pretty legitimate trial for just being done
on like her small, organic farm.
- So we designed the field trial that consisted of 45 sheep.
We randomly assigned each sheep to go in three equal group.
And one, group number one was control,
which were not given supplements.
The second group to 0.5% of dry matter intake supplement. [CORRECTION: 0.25%]
And group number three,
they were given 2% of dry matter intake seaweed. [CORRECTION: 1%]
- [Narrator] They tested each sheep
by leading it into this enclosure
and measuring the methane emissions from its nose.
After six weeks, the effects were striking.
- The sheep that were given high supplementation
showed 65 to 70% reduction of the methane emission.
- [Narrator] And the seaweed
seemed healthier for the sheep too.
- Additionally, we saw kind of improvement
or increase of healthy bacteria in their rumen
and decrease of less beneficial bacteria.
- The sheep actually noticing that it's not just microbiome
shifted into positive, they actually parasite infestation
when down in the supplemented group which is a huge result
since the parasites are part of their animal health
and the less parasite that you have,
the healthier the animals, the more productive they are.
- [Narrator] The results from the trial are promising,
and Alexia has more tests in the works.
Symbrosia will soon move into a bigger facility too,
one that could churn out enough seaweed
to support 1500 head of cattle annually.
But consider that in 2019,
there were just under 1 billion head of cattle in the world,
to say nothing of sheep or other livestock.
Going big is going to take time.
- Just for comparison crops like corn or soy
have been continuously developed for thousands of years,
and we've been doing this for two years.
So we're trying to really do it at a faster pace
but it's an ongoing process.
- [Narrator] There are other questions
around a product like Symbrosia's.
What are the long-term health effects
of an algae-rich diet on livestock?
Could seaweed alter the taste of cow's milk?
And crucially, will farmers opt in?
- You need incentive.
If you say to the farmers,
so this is strictly for methane reduction,
it's not clear how much people would do this,
it depends on the cost.
But the number two, if supplement actually prove
to be beneficial for animal health,
in this situation the farmers would be very excited
and would be very happy to use it
because they would know they helped particular farm,
particular flock of sheep or cows,
at the same time, helping the planet.
(liquid bubbling)
- [Narrator] Of course, there's another way
to reduce methane, fewer livestock.
- And most of our team is vegetarian or vegan.
So we see our solution as complimentary
to a shift towards a more plant-based diet.
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen
within the timeframe that we need it to happen.
- [Narrator] Worldwide,
there are signs that we've already hit peak livestock.
The amount of global pasture land
has actually been shrinking over the past 20 years.
Meaning our shift away from livestock dependence
may have already begun.
But it's not going to happen overnight.
So for now, the adventures in cattle cuisine continue.
- Thank you to Lexus for their support.
Be sure to check out the new 2021 Lexus IS
by going to lexus.com/is.
Their campaign is about going all in on your passion
and getting a greater reward
which is why they sponsored this series
on Researchers and Innovators.
They don't influence our editorial
but they do help make videos like this viable.
So thanks again to them and thank you for watching.