this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Fonterra is getting ready to tackle its biggest source of emissions - farmers (www.stuff.co.nz)
submitted 1 year ago by 2tapry@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
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For those who have been following the "Dairy/Emissions/Climate Change" saga the last few days, this story highlights the role that Fronterra will/must play in turning the industry around to be accepted on the World stage. This includes at least some move to plant based production. Fronterra can dictate to farmers what practices are acceptable, or it won't collect the milk, this has been done before, so Fronterra has the power to force the change.

As one of the early commenters below the story highlights, this does nothing for the pollution of NZ Rivers that continues, though. It IS time for the Farmers to pay, and I suspect many are going to pay dearly.

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[–] gardner@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know how they are tracking now, but this comapny made some waves with their seaweed approach back in 2021: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2112/S00513/ch4-aotearoa-opens-auckland-office-and-expands-team-after-announcing-further-investment-by-sir-stephen-tindall.htm

Basically, they feed a red seaweed to dairy cows and the cows fart less. From memory it was something in the seaweed that prevented a specific type of bacteria that produces the most methane. Back in 2021, there wasn't a lot of research around long-term health for the cattle, or how it affected the milk product, but it was a very promising approach.

[–] 2tapry@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 year ago

I don't know how they are tracking now, but this comapny made some waves with their seaweed approach back in 2021

Terribly! They promised 80-90% reduction of methane back then, but recent trials in Aus show it having less than 30% reduction and the cow looses considerable weight. So the end result is more like 10% reduction and long term effects on the cow are still to come in.

There is another one available now that claims 30% reduction (forgot its name) but I've not seen any real trial results yet.