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Comment by s1artibartfast | Hacker News Reader

The methane isn't from the cows, it is from the bacteria in their gut. It can be greatly reduced with supplemental feeding that changes the microbiome

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The methane isn't from the bacteria, it is from their food.

If the inefficient cow/bacteria processing step is skipped, the whole production pipeline is greatly more climate-friendly.

More specifically, it is a waste product from bacteria digesting the food.

The food doesn't turn to methane without the bacteria.

https://jasbsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40104-01...

But genes to appear to modulate gut microbiota composition on other animals, so it's not impossible that there is some genetic modification (to cattle) that would have the desired effect.

oh, I totally agree that there could be some design space around this.

Another alternative is GMO feed that contain some of the same nutrients as seaweed. Gene transfer might be easier between seaweed and feed then seaweed and cow

Very cool to see the knowledge of guy/microbiome growing.

I wonder if that means it would actually be possible, more likely I would guess to modify the corn or whatever gross food we feed most cows.

I've read a lot about this, but is it being done at any scale? And how much extra does it cost?

Not that I am aware of, but I am far from an expert in the area.

This paper[1] suggests it would cost about ~20 cents per lb of beef

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

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