Japan turned a cow's burp into a tradeable asset.
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture approved a new methodology on December 18, letting livestock producers earn carbon credits by feeding cattle two specific methane-reducing feed additives, cashew nut shell liquid and 3-NOP, under the country's J-Credit scheme.
The additives work by suppressing the microorganisms in a cow's gut that produce methane during digestion, and the approved additives have shown average reductions of roughly 30 percent in dairy cows and 45 percent in beef cattle in prior trials.
Gastrointestinal methane from livestock is Japan's second largest source of agricultural methane emissions, behind only rice cultivation, so this is a genuinely significant lever for the country's agricultural emissions.
The interesting part is the mechanism. Rather than mandating the additive, Japan built a market for it, letting farmers monetize a feed change through carbon credits instead of absorbing the cost themselves. That is usually the difference between a technology that stays a pilot and one that actually scales across an entire national herd.
Source: www.agnavigator.com/Article/2026...