We have reached a stage where anyone that speaks up for Irish livestock is in danger of being intimidated into silence by condemnation and personalised attacks. But we must let facts emerge. The highly regarded Australian research institute – CSIRO – has just been awarded the million dollar Food Planet prize for their ground-breaking work on feeding a variety of seaweed to cattle to reduce their methane production by about 95%. The recognition of this work by the director of the German Potsdam Institute for climate impact research, as well as the Swedish Stockholm Resilience Centre, both of whom were on the judging panel, should send a clear message that methane emissions in bovines can be controlled by diet.