The Australian enterprise trying to curb the methane belched by livestock

With plant-based meat flaming out as a planet-saving alternative to real meat on cost, taste and health factors, billionaires such as Bill Gates have had to reconsider their antipathy towards the beef and dairy industry.

The big issue is the methane being belched by ruminant livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats. The gas is responsible for about 30 per cent of global warming due to its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere at 28 times the potency of carbon dioxide, albeit for a shorter period.

Rumin8 is confident that methane emissions can be reduced by 50 per cent even on Australia’s large cattle stations.Credit: Brendan Esposito

Andrew Forrest and Gates are among many billionaires behind green investment group Breakthrough Energy, which is backing Australian start-up Rumin8 to help save the industry and the planet with the use of seaweed.

Nearly a decade after an academic study confirmed that seaweed had the potential to vastly reduce methane emissions from cows, Rumin8 co-founder David Messina says an additive fed to livestock is on the cusp of becoming available.

Gates is listening.

“Rumin8, whose feed supplements have successfully reduced livestock methane emissions by over 90 per cent while boosting productivity, demonstrates that we can enjoy beef and dairy without the high environmental costs they’re typically associated with,” Gates said ahead of the Breakthrough Energy Summit in London last month. “They recently opened a demonstration plant in Australia to showcase the commercial viability of their products.”

Messina presented at the summit and gave Gates a personal update.

This backing is crucial, not just for the star power it brings to the Perth-based Rumin8. Breakthrough Energy has anointed it as one of the promising start-ups it backs that has the potential to clear the astounding hurdle they set: The ability to reduce global emissions by 1 per cent.

“One of their thresholds for making an investment is the technology, and therefore the product, has to have the ability to potentially reduce global greenhouse gases by 1 per cent. So they are chasing the really big problems that are difficult to solve,” Messina says.

Recent studies mentioned by Gates reported that the Rumin8 product can slash methane emissions by up to 95 per cent. More importantly, it doesn’t apply only to cattle in highly controlled feedlot systems.

It can also be used for grazing cattle, which account for the vast majority of cow herds in Australia, the US, Brazil and New Zealand, albeit with reduced efficiency.

Rumin8 managing director David Messina.

“I think a realistic target is going to be around 50 per cent (emissions reduction),” Messina says of the potential for open grazing cattle.

The recent study conducted by the University of New England in Australia and independent universities in the US and Brazil cleared another important hurdle – cost.

The study confirmed that the emissions represented a loss of energy that could be directed to more productive ends.

Agriculture Victoria estimated that 6 to 10 per cent of gross energy intake was lost as methane.

“Belched methane represents energy lost from your production system that might otherwise be converted to the milk, meat or fibre that generates income,” it said.

Messina says the recent trial, conducted across different countries, cattle species and geographies, reported weight gains in a range of 8.4 per cent to 12.5 per cent on top of recorded reductions of methane intensity of up to 86 per cent.

He says it changes the conversation from one focused on environmental issues to productivity benefits.

“This is a really interesting product – it’s going to make you money while lowering your carbon footprint,” Messina says.

It is an issue appreciated by Gates, who just weeks ago said there was a real problem with solutions that require charging customers a green premium.

Rumin8 has another crucial difference from other start-ups which use actual seaweed to reduce emissions. Rumion8 has focused instead on producing a synthetic form of the active ingredient tribromomethane (TBM).

It means Rumin8 is not tethered to seaweed harvesting and production when it comes to scaling its product and producing it overseas.

“We can manufacture that in any continent in the world. You can scale it very quickly. And of course, when you put those two things together, you get a much lower cost production,” Messina says.

The big issue is getting regulatory approval for the product across major markets, a process that takes years and tens of millions of dollars.

The solution is going through the regulatory approval process in Australia, New Zealand – where it received provisional approval last month – the US and Brazil.

Even with provisional approval in New Zealand, it could be 2026 before final approvals are received and 2027 in the US.

While Rumin8 has a galaxy of billionaires behind it, other contenders in the methane emissions space are making headway.

Another Australian start-up, Macquarie Group-backed Sea Forest, has partnered with the UK’s Myton Food Group, the food manufacturing arm of Morrisons’ supermarkets. It will help fast-track lower-carbon beef products to 500 Morrisons supermarkets by 2026 and 1600 convenience stores.

“Once our trial is complete, and we have approvals in place, we can develop our lower-carbon beef products and help support the drive to lower emissions from cattle,” Sophie Throup, Myton technical and sustainability director said.

Sea Forest says its product can already be used in animal feed in some markets, including Australia and the UK.

Last year, Sea Forest and Grill’d unveiled what the burger chain called a “world-first sustainable” grass-fed beef burger made from black Angus cattle fed on the seaweed product which reduced methane emissions by up to 67 per cent.

The burger cost an additional $1 compared to the Grill’d standard burger.

“This is a company that wants to make a meaningful difference to climate change, and it welcomes the efforts of others in this space as well,” a Sea Forest spokesman said.

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