AAFC invests up to $533,475 to develop Canada’s capacity to study seaweed as a value-added cattle feed. This investment is under the federal, provincial, territorial initiative - Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Program.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) continues establishes an agreement with Cascadia Seaweed to systematically identify valuable compounds found in British Columbia seaweeds.
There are over 600 species of seaweed in British Columbia alone. While seaweed grows in the ocean, it captures carbon and nitrogen, provide habitat, helps mitigate acidification, and produces oxygen.
Through this investment, it is expected to identify a systematic assessment of compounds within specific seaweeds to improve animal health, increase feed conversion, and reduce enteric methane emissions produced by ruminants such as cows, sheep and goats.
There is a global need to diversify feedstock production with climate-resilient crops and this research presents an exciting alternative for animal producers to boost productivity and reduce emissions.
“By investing in alternative farming methods such as the initiative by Cascadia Seaweed to explore seaweed as an alternative feedstock for cattle, we are supporting the development of sustainable feed that reduces methane emissions and moves the sector further into the clean economy for future generations,” says the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.