Feeding cows oregano oil may help cut back on their methane-laced belching, says NPR. Bovine belching accounts for one third of global methane emissions, and methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
A team of Danish scientists is experimenting with the essential oil, based on evidence that carvacrol, a mild antimicrobial in oregano oil, can clear bad bacteria from the gut. Too much of the oil, though, can wipe out good microbes as well. The researchers hope that the oregano oil can curb cow belching by up to 25 percent, and may even result in more milk production.
“A cow loses a lot of energy in releasing all this methane,” Kai Grevsen, a senior crop science researcher at Aarhus University, told NPR. “By blocking the bacteria, the energy that doesn’t get lost can be used by the cow to produce more milk.”
Other solutions to the belching issue have relied on synthetic chemicals, like 3-nitrooxypropanol (3NOP), which has been shown to reduce methane emissions in cows by 30 percent. Some scientists are even working on a methane-reduction vaccine. But if it’s proven successful, oregano oil would be especially attractive to organic farmers, who often are prohibited from using chemical therapies.