Animal husbandry accounts for one-fifth of global carbon emissions, in which 80% of them are from cattle and sheep. Ruminant stomachs have four compartments and one of them – the rumen – consists of various microorganisms. As grass and other vegetation ferment in the rumen, it produces methane and a host of other byproducts such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The methane is then expelled by the ruminant, mainly through belching and farting.

Changing people’s eating habits is far more difficult that reducing methane from the source. There are two solutions that we can take into considerations. One is to reduce methane emissions from cattle through improvement in feed, and the other one is to replace real beef with artificial meat.

In order to seize the potential market, artificial meat has been widely used in many catering companies, such as McDonald’s and PepsiCo. 

Learn more from the full article (in Chinese only) written by Kenny Siu, Senior Advisor of AEC Group, published on Sing Pao on 13 December.