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GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2019 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 8 European countries, scientists have discov- ered that relatively few of the microorgan- isms in a cow's rumen seem to be responsible for methane emissions. It is possible to identify that core microbiome and, maybe, eventually, to breed cows whose eructations do not exceed the so- cially acceptable. Other scientists around the world are working on the idea that if farmers can't beat the problem with breed- ing, maybe they can beat it by feeding. Dairy Farmer Albert Straus, who farms on the eastern shore of Tomales Bay in western Marin County, California, is exper- imenting with an idea that offers promise for solving that as he moves forward on his plan for his goal of making his farm car- bon-neutral by 2022. He's planning that all of the dozen family farms who supply his Straus Family Creamery, which became the country's first certified 100 percent organic creamery in 1994, will also become carbon- neutral within five to 10 years from now. "I'm trying to create a model of dairy farming that is sus- tainable for the planet, the animals and the commu- nity," he said. As one of a broad array of strategies to meet that goal, he's planning to feed his cows a minimal amount of seaweed. This is not the kind of seaweed you usually see on the shelves in gro- cers' snack food aisles – it's a red algae called Asparagopsis that grows in tropical to warm temperate waters. Asparagopsis has culinary uses for humans, particularly in Hawaiian cuisine, where it's a traditional ingredient in poke. Scientists around the world are discovering that it may have the power to reduce methane during rumen fermentation by, perhaps, as much as 99 percent. Straus is hoping to see an 80 to 90 percent reduc- tion in the amount of enteric methane produced by his cows. Early studies suggest that feed supplements con- taining the algae can reduce the cows' methane produc- tion without obvious negative impacts on milk fat or the milk's flavor. The seaweed he's using is harvested in the wild from Hawaii and the Azores. "They're looking to grow it commercially in southern California, but that hasn't happened yet," he said. "They're still working to validate it and get it scaled." Methane Digestion Reducing the methane that his cows are emitting in their belches is just part of Straus' plan. He also has a carbon farm plan that, in 20 years, aims to sequester 2,000 metric tons of carbon per year. About a fifth of that comes from carbon farming – adding compost to the land, using ani- mals to graze and facilitating growth in the pastures to sequester carbon in the soil. "It's one of the only ways to reverse climate change, versus just reduce it," he observed. Another 80 percent of his carbon reduction will come from captur- ing the methane that's produced at the other end of the cow and turn- ing into electricity with the methane digester he installed 15 years ago. "For the last 15 years, we've been producing all the electricity for the farm and most of the hot water," he said. The Fiscalini family installed its own methane digester in June, 2009. "We capture a significant amount of the waste that's pro- duced on the farm and hold it, capture the methane that's released during that process, run an internal combustion machine on methane gas and convert that into electric- ity," Fiscalini said. About half of the elec- tricity produced from that manure is used to run the entire Fiscalini operation, in- cluding the dairy farm and barns, cheese plant and irrigation wells. The other half is sold to the local utility. "We capture the heat for the engine and heat the water that's needed for the boiler for the cheese opera- tion and the wash water we need for the dairy barn," Fiscalini said. Recycling the heat from the generator to heat water re- duces the farm's propane use by about 70 percent, he said. Once the methane digester is done with the manure, it's spread on the fields as fertilizer. "One thing to remember is that California is one of the few states where we have a 365-day growing season," he said. "We are able to apply those nutri- ents almost any day of the year." Methane digesters have many sustain- ability benefits – they reduce flies and greatly reduce farm odors as well as pro- ducing electricity – but those benefits come at substantial cost up front. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the capital cost for an on-farm anaerobic di- gester usually runs from about $400,000 to $5 million, depending on the size of the op- eration and the technology used. The typi- cal on-farm anaerobic digester costs about $1.2 million. Straus estimates his own im- plementation cost at $334,680, with about half of that paid for through California's Dairy Power Production Program and the EPA. Although Straus saves $40,000 to $50,000 a year in power costs, the small family farmers supplying the Straus Family Creamery can't all afford to eat that capital costs up front. Straus is using the digester he already has to try and solve that prob- lem. He's selling greenhouse gas credits and electricity generated by the digester to a car company that's paying him five times what he'd get for the electricity from the local power utility and planning to use the funds to create a revolving fund to build more small digesters on the farms of his suppli- ers, so those farmers don't have to go into debt to have them. "They won't have to build or operate a plant," he said. "They're going to have plants on their property, but they won't have to build them." Other Strategies These two farmers, like others across the country, are also using a variety of other strategies to improve their sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint. Straus Family Creamery became in 2019 the first creamery in the world to be Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE ® ) zero waste- certified. He's reduced the creamery's water use by 40 percent in part by recapturing wash water, treating it for bacteria and using the same water to cool his cream sep- arator. All the water in the creamery is used at least twice before it goes into the methane generator and then back out to water the fields. Like Straus, Fiscalini is investing in elec- tric vehicles: Straus uses an electric truck to carry feed for his cows, and Fiscalini re- cently bought an electric all-terrain vehicle that's used in his fields by the herdsmen who look after the cows and tend the irri- gation system. "We're going to be convert- ing the entire fleet over to electric," he said. The Sustainability Ethic "I'm always interested in how we can do a better job and really make farming sustain- able," said Straus. "I feel that our farming and food system are broken, and I feel that if we can create a model for farming that's really sustainable for the planet and at the same time create a local food system that's sustainable instead of importing half our fruit, a third of our vegetables and 10 per- cent of our beef, 60 percent of our lamb, 90 percent of our seafood – we've got to change what we're doing because we're at risk as a society." "One thing that I would like to add is that – particularly in California, but it's true across the U.S. – is that dairy farmers are obviously conscious of the environment and want to take care of it," Fiscalini said. "We're the fourth generation, hoping to pass it on to the fifth, sixth and seventh, and all the decisions that we make today will affect them, and so we're trying to do the right thing." GN Dairy Farmers Continued from PAGE 1 industry and the methane emissions asso- ciated with dairy cattle. The board's inten- tion is to make dairy farmers part of the solution to reduce the state's emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases by 40 percent below 2013 levels by 2040, a stan- dard set in 2016 by the passage of Califor- nia's SB 1383, which specifically targeted methane emissions from dairy and other livestock. Solving the Methane Problem Methane is a compound of carbon and hy- drogen and a greenhouse gas that's about 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide in its global warming potential, and cows pro- duce it through the enteric fermentation that's part of their natural digestive process as they munch their way through the com- plex carbohydrates of the plants they eat. Super-pollutants like methane and refriger- ants are thought to be responsible for as much as 40 percent of global warming, and California expects that its current plan to reduce methane emissions, among other measures, will save the state between $860 million and $2.2 billion in climate change- related damage to its economy. Most well-fed ruminant animals in tem- perate agriculture systems will convert about 5.5 to 6.5 percent of their feed energy into methane, and among sheep, goats, swine, horses, mules, water buffalo and dairy cows, the dairy cows are, by far, the most prone to methane eructations, emit- ting as much as 220 pounds of methane per head per year, compared to about 40 pounds for a horse, 11 pounds for a goat and 18 for a sheep. In the U.S., a mature dairy cow emits, on average, about 150 pounds of methane per head per year. In California, about 1.8 million dairy cows and a smaller number of beef cattle emit about 11.5 million tons of carbon dioxide- equivalent per year – about the same as 2.5 million cars on the road, according to the U.S. Environmental Production Agency. "Per head" matters here, because while the effluent products of cows' digestion – bovine flatulence – have a bearing on the discussion, the methane that comes out of their mouths matters more because there's more of it. Scientists around the world are tackling the problem with a handful of ideas that offer promise to reduce the methane produced by bovine enteric fer- mentation. In a study published this year on exper- iments involving 1,000 cows across four

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