TED Talks Daily Sunday Pick: How a special seaweed is lowering methane emissions—one cow burp at a time | from Speed & Scale
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Apr 19, 2026 
Brianna Roque, an animal scientist helping bring methane-cutting seaweed to market, dives into Asparagopsis and its surprising role in cattle feed. They explore dramatic methane tests, tiny doses with big effects, why feedlots and dairy are the easiest starting points, and the race to scale beyond just nine licensed growers. Regulation, safety checks, food-company backing and even premium climate-friendly burgers all come up.
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A Farmer's Seaweed Clue Started The Research
- Dairy farmer Joe Dorgan noticed cows eating beach seaweed made more milk, behaved better, and had stronger fertility cycles.
- His observations pushed researcher Rob Kinley to test the seaweed for feed safety and methane effects.
Asparagopsis Crushed Methane At Tiny Doses
- Rob Kinley found Asparagopsis could nearly eliminate methane with less than 1% of feed, far beyond the 20% cuts he first saw.
- He repeated the lab test four times because he thought the instruments were broken.
Global Seaweed Supply Is Far Below What Cattle Need
- Feeding every cow this seaweed would require about 100 million tons, while global seaweed farming today is only 35 million tons.
- Only a tiny share of current production is Asparagopsis, so supply is the core scaling bottleneck.