Alexia Akbay is the founder & CEO of Symbrosia, a startup producing a seaweed feed supplement for ruminants that can reduce their methane emissions by 90%

Ruminent livestock (cows, beef, sheep, goat) are responsible for ~14% of total greenhouse gas emissions (~7Gt of CO2-eq). Enteric fermentation, which is part of the ruminant's digestive process, drives ~40% of these livestock emissions as methane - a highly potent gas with intense short-term warming effects

With global livestock numbers on the rise in spite of the emergence of meat substitutes and milk alternatives, practical solutions like Symbrosia are needed by food brands and farmers farmers to reduce the climate impact of their activities

In this episode, we talk with Alexia about:

• how her idea started from reading a research paper, evolved into a school project at Yale to become a 20 people strong company operating in Hawaii
• why is red seaweed so difficult to farm and how is Symbrosia’s technology enabling an efficient and consistent seaweed production
• how can this farming model scale up from one the latest facility supplying 1M cows to addressing the 1.5B cows across the globe today

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about Symbrosia and livestock farming:

• Salesforce Ecopreneur show on Symbrosia, including a view of the product & production facilities in Hawaii (video, ~10mn)
• Concentration and Power in the Food System, by Philip Howard (book, ~200 pages)