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FEED ADDITIVES

Benefit: Reduce the amount of methane
that cattle belch into the air. Cattle
produce methane during digestion, a
process known as enteric fermentation.

Prospects: It’s early, but some products
Tim Bettington . show significant methane reductions
Zoetis
Challenges: It can take years to get FDA
Juan .Tricarico .says .he .thinks .it .will .be .at . approval, and the agency doesn’t have an
least .three .years .before .there’s .enough . approval process for labeling feed additives
data . for . many . of . the . products . in . the . as methane reducers.
wings .to .be .become .widely .available .
Earlier this year, Burger King caused quite a
The . pharmaceutical . firm . Zoetis . be- stir when it aired a commercial that made some
lieves .that .a .product .now .on .the .market . researchers on climate change and cows lose
as .a .growth .promoter, .ractopamine, .re- their lunch.
duces .air .emissions .from .cattle . .Zoetis . In a bizarre ad, a young singer dressed in a
has . been . working . with . the . University . white cowboy outfit crooned about how Burger
of .California-Davis .on .research .that .the . King had been “testing diets that would help
company .hopes .to .see .published .in .the . reduce (cattle) farts.”
near .future, .said .Tim .Bettington, .execu- The solution, the guitar-slinging youngster and
tive .vice .president .and .head .of .U .S . .op- his fellow cowboys and cowgirls said, was lem-
erations .for .Zoetis . . ongrass: “By now there ain’t no question that it’s
helping cows’ digestion.”
Zoetis .would .like .to .see .FDA .allow .it .to . But the fast-food giant left itself open to criti-
be .labeled .for .the .purpose .of .emission . cism. Researchers quickly jumped on Twitter to
reductions, .but .FDA .doesn’t .have .a .pro- say that it’s the burps, not what comes out the
cess .yet .for .doing .that . other end, that are the problem. They also went
after the company for what they called inade-
The . regulatory . barriers . to . feed . ad- quate data to back up their claims that feeding
ditives . received . high-level . attention . a small amount of lemongrass to the animals
from . the . new . Food . and . Agriculture . reduced the impact of their flatulence by a third.
Climate .Alliance, .the .coalition .includ- Whatever one may think of Burger King’s ad,
ing . major . farm . groups . that . recom- the incident put the spotlight on the serious issue
mended . FDA . expedite . feed . additive . of methane emissions from cows and cattle, put
approvals, . prioritizing . those . with . feed additives in the news, and highlighted work
“climate . and . digestive . efficiency . by researchers worldwide to develop products
benefits .” . The . group . said . FDA . that can reduce ruminant emissions.
ordinarily . takes . three . to . five . year . to . “What they’re looking at with a fine-toothed
review .an .animal .feed .ingredient . . comb is the efficacy of reducing enteric methane

emissions,” says Juan Tricarico, vice president

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