Climate change crusader and outspoken cattle industry critic Bill Gates has thrown his support behind an Australian start-up that has developed technology to slash methane emissions from beef and dairy industries.
It coincides with a visit to Australia where Mr Gates met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the weekend to discuss climate change and other issues.Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s privately owned agri-business Harvest Road has also taken a stake in Rumin8, which has made the world’s biggest climate funds sit up and take notice after finding a way to replicate the bioactive in asparagopsis, the seaweed found by CSIRO to all but cancel out methane emissions from cattle in the form of burps and farts.
Rumin8 managing director David Messina said the company could scale up to produce millions of cost-effective doses in a short time and that had been one of the big attractions for BEV. The Albanese government has committed to joining more than 100 other nations that have signed up to US President Joe Biden’s global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
Dr Forrest’s Harvest Road said it continued to back FutureFeed and its seaweed-growing model, but also saw merit in the pharmaceutical solution offered by Rumin8.Harvest Road chief executive Paul Slaughter said Rumin8 complemented the group’s other investments in reducing agriculture’s contribution to climate change.