Oregano will help save the world from global warming.
...Alexander Hristov, assistant professor of dairy nutrition at Penn State, spent six years in his lab trying various natural methods to cut cows' methane belches. Eventually, oregano surfaced as the most effective methane suppressant.
Hristov then took oregano into the field, "and we saw the same effect there," he says, cutting the cows' emissions by 40 percent.
Decreasing methane production in dairy cows, the type Hristov worked with, also increases their milk production. "Methane is an energy loss to the animal, and if you reduce methane production, there is energy available for the animal" to make milk, he explains.
The advantage of oregano: If Hristov's team can isolate the compound inside the oregano and synthesize it in the lab, it'll be very cheap. "I don't think just feeding oregano to nine million cows in the U.S. is going to be very cost-effective," he says.
But if we could--or if Hristov gets an oregano supplement to market--the U.S. would cut its cattle methane emissions by 2.2 million tons....
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