Scientists are throwing the kitchen sink at one of the most persistent challenges in agriculture — cows and their belching of potent planet-heating methane.
Iowa State University (ISU) and USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers are teaming up using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and years of laboratory research to find a remedy.
"Developing solutions to address methane emissions from animal agriculture is a critical priority," noted ARS Administrator Simon Liu in a news release. "Our scientists continue to use innovative and data-driven strategies to help cattle producers achieve emission reduction goals that will safeguard the environment and promote a more sustainable future for agriculture."
The team pointed out that methane pollution generated by cows represents around a third of American agriculture's pollution and 3% of the country's overall pollution. To attack the problem, the team went straight to the source. That is the cow's largest stomach compartment, the rumen.
Past efforts by other scientists have uncovered that a molecule found in seaweed, bromoform, can dramatically reduce cows' methane pollution by 80-98%. The problem is that bromoform is a known carcinogen with real safety concerns for the cows.
Scientists are consequently on the hunt for a similar solution, but those research efforts are "time-consuming and expensive," per the news release. That's where the ISU and ARS team thinks that AI can come to the rescue in the hunt for a substitute for bromoform that is safe and just as effective.
"We are using advanced molecular simulations and AI to identify novel methane inhibitors based on the properties of previously investigated inhibitors, but that are safe, scalable, and have a large potential to inhibit methane emissions," said researcher Matthew Beck.
The work was split with ISU researchers spearheading the work on the AI models, while ARS scientists did laboratory and live cattle studies using potential molecule solutions. The ISU team was able to feed the AI model with tons of data from past studies, optimizing it so it could identify molecules worthy of further study.
The combined efforts from ISU and ARS are part of numerous private and public ventures taking on cows' methane pollution.
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Grocery stores 🛒 One group is engineering cows' stomachs to produce less methane. Another effort by University of Wisconsin-Platteville scientists looks to deploy a machine to optimize feeds that produce less belching. Meanwhile, an Australian startup is looking at supplements to reduce belching, and a more hospitable form of seaweed, red algae, to cows is garnering attention from scientists.
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Considering that methane is up to 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide, it is important that these efforts can rein in cows' contribution before it's too late for the overheating planet.
The ISU and ARS Research Leader Jacek Koziel thinks their use of technology is a "valuable scientific tool" that can expedite the process.
"AI can fast-forward the research and accelerate these several pathways that animal nutritionists, researchers, and companies can pursue to get us closer to a very ambitious goal of limiting greenhouse gas emissions and helping mitigate climate change," Koziel concluded.
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