Ermias Kebreab
Description: Ermias Kebreab is an Associate Dean and Professor of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis. He holds the Sesnon Endowed Chair in Sustainable Agriculture. He conducts research in animal nutrition, mathematical modeling of biological systems and impact of livestock on the environment. Among his many accolades, he co-chaired the feed additive and methane committees of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and has authored over 250 peer-reviewed articles. He has received several awards including Excellence in Ruminant Nutrition and International Agriculture from the American Society of Animal Science, and the 2022 Chancellor’s Innovator of the year award. He is a regularly invited speaker including a TED talk that has been featured as one of the ‘must-watch climate talks of 2022’ His research was in the top 10 of all research conducted at the University of California system in 2021. At the end of the episode, we have a second conversation about a new 70 million dollar grant that he, along with top researchers at UC Berkeley and UCSF received to engineer a new population-wide genome editing technology that can be used to completely eradicate methane production.
Websites: Lab Page, UC Davis Page, Twitter, American Society of Animal Science
Publications:
Red seaweed supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80 percent in beef steers
Resources:
A New Gene Editing Tool to Eliminate Methane Production
Show Notes:
[01:30] Introduction, why he is interested in animal agriculture, and how he got to Davis
[05:00] What are greenhouse gasses and why we need to care about them
[08:30] His current research focus: reducing methane emissions with feed additives
[12:45] What are the characteristics and mechanisms of the feed additives
[16:00] What are methanogens?
[19:30] Are there concerns that the gut bacteria will adapt to the feed additives?
[21:20] What are cows fed and how does feed additive efficacy differ between diets?
[25:45] How has the nutritional quality of dairy products changed after adding feed additives?
[27:30] How do you implement the additives into the feed?
[28:30] How many cows are used in your research?
[29:15] How do you determine commercial viability of the additive?
[32:20] How much is methane impacting global warming?
[33:35] How is policy aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
[34:15] Where do you see the future of your research going?
[37:30] How should students get involved in trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
[39:45] How can students find their passion within academia?
[42:45] What are food choices people should make to reduce their impact on the environment?
[45:00] Were the mathematical models you originally worked on correct?
[46:50] Second recording about the new grant and how they are trying to invent a new tool similar to CRISPR to eliminate methane production in cows
[55:05] Will the new methanogen additive carry over across generations?
[1:00:45] How UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco are working together in this grant
[1:02:10] How does this potential new technology differ from the typical CRISPR techniques?