New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 69

N

ew Zealand compa-

nies are forging ahead

with artificial intel-

ligence, meat substitutes

and cutting-edge medical

devices, but the one innova-

tion we desperately need

takes us back to where

many New Zealand inven-

tions began – on the farm.

Nearly half of the country’s

greenhouse-gas emissions

come from agricultural activ-

ity, with a third from animals

alone. The methane belched

out by our cows and sheep

constitutes a particularly

potent if shorter-lived gas

than carbon dioxide. Scien-

tists based in Palmerston

North have for the past

decade been working on

trying to reduce methane

emissions from ruminant live-

stock. The team has explored

the development of a vaccine

that could be given to ani-

mals to reduce the methane

produced in their stomach,

but the key to its effective-

ness is understanding how

those gut microbes produce

the methane as the livestock

digest their food.

On that front, the research-

ers and their international

colleagues had a break-

through in June, publishing

a scientific paper identifying

the main rumen microbes

and enzymes responsible.

If the researchers can now

find a way of preventing

hydrogen from getting

to those “methanogens”,

the methane-producing

microbes, they may be able

to substantially reduce meth-

ane escaping from cows and

sheep.

However, anything that

also reduces the milk- and

meat-yielding potential

of cows and sheep won’t

be acceptable to farmers,

so more work is required

to come up with a fix that

could be widely used on our

farms. With animal trials and

commercialisation, that is

probably still the best part

of 10 years away. Given our

pressing need to reduce

emissions, if there’s one

innovation that needs fast-

tracking, it’s this one.

The breakthrough we need the most