The Bezos Earth Fund is announcing a $9.4 million grant to research a vaccine that would reduce methane emissions in cattle.
In a collaboration between the Pirbright Institute and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), researchers intend to use “state-of-the-art biotechnology” to find a vaccine mechanism that would reduce livestock methane emissions by 30% or more.
Learn more about the vaccine grant here.
Analyzing the headlines:
While intended to mitigate climate change, this initiative is an example of backward thinking. Cattle release approximately 3% of the carbon matter they take in in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, but the remaining 97% is recycled in the form of meat and manure, the latter largely returning to the soil where it is sequestered for decades to centuries.
Rather than focusing on an experimental vaccine that would nominally mitigate those fractional emissions, it would make far more sense to devote research to studying the carbon mitigation power of grazing livestock and to maximize that potential. The myopic focus on 3% emissions misses an opportunity: the 97% carbon recycled or sequestered by grazing animals such as cattle.
