Bill Gates' Latest Investment: Stop Cows from Burping with $12 Million
By Richard Moorhead
January 24, 2023
A firm controlled by the Microsoft co-founder is investing $12 million into an Australian company developing food supplements to stop cattle from burping, Fox Business reported Monday.
The company, Rumin8, said in a news release that it intends to use the investment for product trials in four countries. The trials will test cattle feed designed to minimize the methane emitted by cows through burping.
“We have been very pleased with the reception we have received from climate impact funds around the world,” Rumin8 Managing Director David Messina said of the investment.
“There is a genuine desire to fund solutions to enteric methane emissions from livestock and fortunately for Rumin8, they can see the benefits of our technology.”
An executive for Breakthrough Energy Ventures — a firm founded by Gates — praised Rumin8’s mission in the company’s news release touting the investment.
“The demand for sustainable protein has never been more apparent, which is why BEV is keenly interested in reducing methane emissions from beef and dairy,” Carmichael Roberts said of BEV’s motives.
“Rumin8 offers a low cost, scalable toolbox that has already proven to be effective in reducing emissions,” he said. “Our team will support Rumin8 in working closely with farmers to expand the reach of this solution globally.”
Rumin8 is planning tests with cattle feed developed with an ingredient in red seaweed that would reduce methane production in cows, according to Fox Business.
Emissions from cows have been singled out as pollution before.
One study concluded that cows release 5,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere every year, according to Phys.org.
Gates singled out emissions from cow burps (and flatulence) in a 2019 interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
Cattle ranching is a practice Gates is closely interested in.
The mega-billionaire is the largest private owner of farmland in the United States, according to The Land Report 100.
Gates has gone so far as to question the use of animal products in the human diet entirely — suggesting he’d prefer that developed nations switch to synthetic and plant-based alternatives.
The Microsoft co-founder owns four private jets, luxuries that ensure his carbon signature drastically outstrips that of the average person.