Researchers in the UK have found that the curry spices coriander and turmeric can reduce livestock methane emissions by up to 40-percent.
The spices work a bit like an antibiotic, killing the "bad" methane-producing bacteria in the animal's gut while allowing "good" bacteria to flourish. There are 30 million sheep in the UK, each producing about 5 gallons of methane a day through…well, you know. And methane is 20-times more powerful in terms of global warming when compared to carbon dioxide.
It's a bit like this:
"Methane is a major contributor to global warming, and the slow digestive system of ruminant animals such as cows and sheep makes them a key producer of the gas," Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry at Newcastle University explained. "What my research found was that certain spices contain properties which make this digestive process more efficient so producing less waste – in this case, methane."
Of all the curry spices, the most effective was found to be coriander. It produced a 40-percent reduction where turmeric and cumin produced a 30-percent and 22-percent reduction, respectively.
While the study was only done on sheep, cow and goat rumen fluid is very similar. It is worth noting that there are 10 million cows in the UK, each producing about 125 gallons of methane every single day.
"Spices have long been used safely by humans to kill bacteria and treat a variety of ailments," he added. Aside from environmental implications, the sheep itself lose 12-percent of their food energy to methane production, resulting in a lower milk and meat yield. But as a vegetarian, ewe.
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