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Rice Farming Produces Large Carbon Footprint – fish are the answer to shrinking it

Rice is so, so good. You might disagree but a huge population of the planet loves it. Too bad that it also has the biggest carbon footprint of any grain. That’s right, rice, grown in paddies all over the world also coughs up a ton of methane. The problem is easy to fix though. The solution? Fish.

Turns out water produces a good deal of gases. Well, not the water so much as the tiny things that live in it. There are tiny methane producing bacteria in the paddies. There are also bacteria that eat the methane but unfortunately other creatures eat that. By introducing fish, they eat the creatures that eat the methane devouring creatures. With less predators, they eat more methane so it never makes it to the air.

And the fish act as a second harvest for the people who work in the paddies. The type of fish used in this process aren’t very large, paddies aren’t very deep, but it turns out they can be used in animal feed, namely dog treats. So a win all around.

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