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Cattle ranchers are making less money in the US despite beef prices at an all-time high. In the meantime, Trump started importing beef from Argentina to lower beef prices, but only achieved to lower cattle prices.
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face
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Your first source says that "ruminant animals contribute about 16% of the world’s total methane emissions" and that CH4 emissions lead to 28x more warming per ton than CO2.
Your second source raises a good question about your third:
The environmental impacts of raising food for cattle is also left out of these studies. Over a third of global crop production goes to cattle. That's a lot of fertile land that could be used to feed humans directly.
What is the environmental cost to raise red algae to add to the feed? At scale, is this more than just allowing the cows to belch out the methane? What other impacts does this have on the cows overall health and digestive system?
Methanogenesis is a natural outcome of their diet...the carbon and hydrogen they are consuming is going somewhere...so where?
These studies always leave these questions unanswered...like the slobs that say Ammonnia -> Hydrogen will be our savior for transport...where does the ammonia come from? Producing that is not free and comes at a significant environmental and energy cost to begin with.
Not to even get into water-in/water-out...even the much hated Almond is far more water-efficient dairy alternative (it's big problem is trying to grow it on the desert)...while Soy and Pea milk are much, much more water efficient and more nutritious than
And, that second article talks a bit about manure management, which itself is a big problem...a lot of the E. coli, listeria, and salmonella outbreaks are a direct result of poor manura management causing runoff into leafy-green fields. Another fault of animal agriculture that's oft forgotten.
So even if algae can help, the entire thing is on dire need of reform, and the costs of beef are artificially low. Like gas, they don't account for the external costs like environmental impact. That really needs to be part of the equation. If they were priced accordingly a McDouble would be a fancy luxurious dinner. Even moreso of the workers were paid fairly.
over what time? because methane breaks down, unlike co2
Per the article, over 100 years. Or, my life, my kids lifes, and most of my unborn grandkids lives. Probably some of their kids lives, too.
thank you