Research suggests that lemongrass may also be a successful feed additive to reduce cow methane emissions in the future

The lab of UC Davis Animal Science Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Ermias Kebreab has successfully identified seaweed as a feed additive that can reduce the enteric methane emissions of cows—methane released from cow burps—by as much as 82%. These findings were released March 17 in the journal PLOS ONE, and represent a viable opportunity for farmers to meet California methane standards and reduce the amount of short-lived climate pollutants in the atmosphere.  

“I work with cattle, both beef and dairy, to find new feed additives that can increase the sustainability of livestock,” said Breanna Roque, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the animal biology department, who is working alongside Kebreab on the project. “One of the goals of the lab is to see if we can reduce methane production coming from cattle through the use of feed additives.”

Students working in Kebreab’s lab are testing the impacts of different feed additives on the enteric methane emissions of cows.

“About 95-98% of methane comes from the front of the animal,” Roque said. “A big myth is cow farts are contributing to climate change—it’s actually the burps.”

By reducing enteric methane emissions, Kebreab’s lab is focusing on reducing the methane emissions that are released through the cow’s mouth.

“Livestock contributes about 14.5% to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and about 4% in the U.S.,” Kebreab said. “About 5.7% of global greenhouse gases comes from enteric methane [released by ruminant animals].”

Kebreab hopes the discovery of seaweed as an effective feed additive will reduce the global enteric methane emissions from ruminant animals—typically farm animals like cows, sheep and goats—from 5.7% to 2.5-2.8%.

Roque ran the day-to-day operations of the study by implementing the seaweed into the cows’ diets and ensuring the animals’ safety throughout the 21-week project.

“With any new feed additive, it takes cows a little bit [of time] to get used to the smell and the flavor of something new into their diet,” Roque said. “The seaweed comes freeze-dried and ground so it’s more like a powder than strips of seaweed. I took this powder and mixed it with molasses, which has got a bit of a sweeter smell and taste that cows really enjoy.”

Roque added this mixture to the cows’ diets twice a day and encouraged cows to visit a GreenFeed machine in order to measure their methane emissions.

“The animal voluntarily walks up to the machine and eats [alfalfa pellets] from this tray,” Roque said. “While it’s [eating, it is] also undergoing other processes such as burping and regurgitating. While it’s doing this, the machine is able to capture the burps or the gasses that come from the mouth and measure them.”

By reducing livestock enteric methane pollution, the project strives to help farmers meet new California legislation regarding climate pollutants.

“[In California], legislation has gone through that states that short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane, need to be reduced by 40% in the next 10 years,” Roque said. “If seaweed is reducing such a significant amount of methane, and we are able to get it to the market for these farmers, it provides them a viable way to meet these standards.”

Mallory Honan, a second-year Ph.D. student in the animal science department who is also working alongside Kebreab, studied the effects of lemongrass as a feed additive to reduce enteric methane emissions. 

“[Lemongrass] has a lot of secondary compounds, such as tannins,” Honan said. “What  we were hoping to see is that these secondary compounds would elicit a change in the rumen microbiome environment, thus reducing methane emissions.”

While Honan’s lemongrass study did not elicit a methane reduction as drastic as seaweed, Honan predicts it is due to the location of the lemongrass sourced for the project. 

“The [lemongrass] that we had sourced wasn’t very concentrated in those secondary compounds [tannins], because it was grown in California and not in a tropical, native area,” Honan said.

While students in Kebreab’s lab continue to test the effectiveness of different feed additives, the success of seaweed has allowed Kebreab to explore ways to produce and distribute it. He is working with a couple of companies to do so as quickly and safely as possible.

“I feel very lucky to be a part of this and also very excited for the livestock industry to be able to provide research that contributes so greatly to more sustainable practices,” Roque said.
Written by: Maddie Duley — campus@theaggie.org

The South Korean church accused of being responsible for massive COVID-19 outbreaks throughout South Korea has secretly recruited UC Davis students on campus for years, former members say

When Individual A* was a second-year, a student approached her in the Memorial Union and asked her if she could spare a minute to help out with an assignment. Individual A pulled out her headphones and said, “Sure.” “Do you believe in God?” they asked. “Yes,” she answered. “How would you rate your relationship with God?” they asked in response. 

Individual A was intrigued. When the student invited her to a Bible study group with Newsong Fellowship, she shared her phone number. The student never mentioned the assignment again.  

Throughout her years at UC Davis, Individual A was approached twice more by others who were completing this same assignment. During summer session, when a student recruiting Individual A mentioned that they also attended her church, she said that she felt at ease and decided to give the Bible study a chance.

“At the time, I was curious,” she said. “Since I’m a believer, I thought to myself, ‘Is God trying to tell me something? Is God trying to tell me to go and study with this group?’”

For two years, Individual A intermittently attended these small Bible study groups. She recounts that initially the Bible study groups felt pretty standard—the attendees studied parables. The teacher mentioned that they were missionaries and not a student-run organization.

Then, Individual A said subtle, unsettling incidents started to occur that left her weary and confused. In her denomination, Saturday is a holy day. After a Bible study leader implied that Saturday isn’t a holy day, she texted the student who attended her church to ask how he accepted this discrepancy. He brushed it off and promised that her concerns would be addressed: “Don’t worry. I had the same questions that you have. It’s all going to be clarified.”

Eventually, Individual A attended larger meetings. The first one took place in a classroom on campus and later in the basement of Kobe Mini Mart downtown. The same teacher who instructed Individual A’s small group years prior stood in front of the group and explained that the Second Coming would be a silent event. 

Individual A shared that when she confronted the teacher after Bible study and said this secretive Second Coming was contradictory to what is presented in the Bible, the teacher became aggressive, frantically pulling Bible verses and telling Individual A that she needs to look at the bigger picture when studying scripture. 

“I remember I felt so guilty that day that I texted her and apologized to her,” Individual A said. “From then on, I kept attending the meetings, but I attended online because they had a Zoom option as well.”

On a walk in the Arboretum with the teacher who had snapped at her, Individual A said that she was pressed about her relationship with God; her teacher said that she should really be more serious about Bible study and discouraged her from watching a Christian YouTube channel that Individual A had been enjoying. She was constantly told to attend meetings in person and was berated with text messages whenever she was absent.

“In a sense, I didn’t want to go anymore, but I felt guilty about not going because I knew people now,” Individual A said. “I felt like they really wanted me to go, and I didn’t want to make them feel bad if I didn’t. I was also always really impressed by [how] they would recruit people and two days later those people who were just recruited would be going around campus recruiting others.”

At one meeting they were presented with the Parable of the Sower—the same parable that Individual A was presented with at her first Bible study session with the group. The parable explains that there are three seeds planted: one on pavement, the next in rocky soil and the third in healthy soil. The condition of the soil determines whether the seed flourishes into a strong tree or withers away.

“At the end of the meeting, the pastor that was presenting said, ‘Hey everyone, at the next meeting we are going to ask you about what we talked about and what each of these seeds represents,’” Individual A said. “‘If you don’t remember, we will know what kind of seed you are.’”

Individual A described feeling uncomfortable.

“I remember closing the Zoom and I googled Newsong fellowship,” Individual A said. “I wasn’t finding anything. I googled fellowships on campus. I was looking and looking. A Reddit post appeared that said, ‘Warning cult on campus. They go by Newsong, but they also labeled themselves all of these other names. They’re Shincheonji.’”

The New York Times has deemed the Shincheonji Church of Jesus (SCJ) the “most vilified church in South Korea.” Others have classified the South Korean church as a cult. The church recently also received international news coverage for its disregard of COVID-19 safety regulations, which had resulted in the rapid spread of infections throughout South Korea.

The “shadowy” church has been recruiting UC Davis students for years, starting students in a small group Bible study examining parables then moving them into larger classes, according to the three students The California Aggie spoke to. For fourth-year undergraduate Individual B, the group was appealing for its logical and nondenominational analysis of the Bible.

Individual B was first recruited during his freshman year; he was approached by two girls in front of the Segundo Dining Commons and asked to attend Bible study. He went, and it was nothing out of the ordinary. Later, he was approached at the Memorial Union which resulted in him attending another unexceptional session at Wellman Hall. Eventually, Individual B was attending Bible study and a larger theological class made up of about 15 students for nine to 12 hours a week.

Individual B said he grew skeptical as he began to notice considerable red flags. The meetings were mandatory and his friend was prevented from attending after Individual B asked if he could bring him. Recording the Zoom meetings was forbidden. When he expressed being overwhelmed with school and proposed a lighter commitment, his mentor suggested that Individual B should follow in his footsteps and drop his course load and take a fifth year.

“Finally, [my mentor] said, ‘If you really believe in God and you truly want to be in heaven, then you’ll sacrifice some of your time in school,’” Individual B said.

Despite Individual B being heavily invested in the group, they didn’t explicitly reveal their affiliation with SCJ to him. 

“They never mentioned [SCJ],” Individual B said. “They would refer to, ‘The Him Who Overcomes.’ That popped up a bunch throughout the Bible study. They derived it from the last book of the Bible, Revelation.” 

To Individual B, the true biblical meaning of “The Him Who Overcomes” was anybody who perseveres through hardship, rather than representing a single person as presented in their Bible study. When he searched the phrase online, he discovered a blog post about SCJ and called a fellow group member who he considered a friend to share this revelation.

Followers of SCJ believe “The Him Who Overcomes” to be the group’s founder Lee Man-hee, according to Individual B. Man-hee, who is also known as “Chairman Lee Man-hee” and “the Promised Pastor,” was acquitted of conspiracy charges for not cooperating with COVID-19 protocols in January 2021. 

On the evening after he uncovered the blog post, Individual B was invited to dinner at Thai Canteen with his mentor and his teacher. His teacher confronted Individual B about the blog post (that he had only shared with a close friend in the group) and denied any affiliation with SCJ.

Like Individual B, Individual C was also drawn to attend meetings for the fellowship’s “truth-seeking” textual analysis of the Bible. When she was recruited on the Quad during her senior year, the organization’s name wasn’t provided. Recruiters offered the explanation that they are a new group or that they’re missionaries from all different denominations, Individual C said. Individual C, who didn’t have many friends at UC Davis, was seeking in-depth Biblical analysis. 

“I always had been critical with most Biblical teachings as they were vague and only feel-good, yet I was always seeking and driven by wanting to do the right thing, which was to pursue truth,” Individual C said. “I assumed [the truth] would be found within my Christian faith because I was raised in it and had convinced myself for it to be true. So this was the perfect Bible study for me, because they taught with so much detail, with logical reasoning that pieced all their interpretations together, everything cited with a Bible verse.”

Individual C had surpassed Individual B in his studies and was regarded as a high-level member. Once she obtained this status, she said that the group revealed themselves as SCJ. 

Individual C said that they used logic to rationalize previous lies and manipulation tactics, referencing Schindler’s List as an example of justified deceitfulness. Individual B and Individual C both came to the conclusion that fellow members that they were confiding in were not actually UC Davis students like they had claimed.

“People pretended to be new students with you at the small group Bible studies—later you find out that they were a ‘plant’ and it was their job to make you feel welcome, ask you questions about what you thought about the lesson,” Individual C said. “I felt betrayed when they revealed afterwards that they’ve been with SCJ for like one to three years. They made it seem like it was just a fun surprise, but I honestly felt lied to, because I was.”

Individual A and Individual B both said they were able to walk away from the group without significant psychological consequences. They remain connected to their previous churches and their experience didn’t alter their core spiritual or religious beliefs. In contrast, Individual C no longer identifies as a Christian. 

“I wanted to see a counselor because my faith, which I had spent all my life trying to fit and build my worldview, was ruined,” Individual C said. “I had nightmares here and there for several months.”

Individual A said that she thinks college students are especially vulnerable to forms of manipulation and deceit as they are away from their homes, experiencing the many newfound freedoms of young adulthood for the first time. There have been reports of SCJ activity at other campuses across Northern California, according to a former member of an SCJ-affiliated fellowship. 

Individual A suggested that the university administration take action to protect students from harmful groups by better vetting of classroom reservations.

“Because of the fact that they were having some of this stuff inside of classrooms, I really thought that it was affiliated with the university and that it was a safe community,” Individual A said. “It does get to a point where you start to question if this is mentally beneficial for the people that they are recruiting, because if they are dropping out of school—if they are being pulled away from their families—is this something [UC Davis administration] should act on? Something that could be done is to monitor a little bit more the way that the classrooms are being used.”

Students interviewed declined to share their contact info, citing fear of harassment; Individual C said that her driver’s license was photocopied by members of the church. The California Aggie was unable to get in touch with SCJ after multiple requests for comment.

Individual C struggled to exit the fellowship even after learning its true identity. 

“It’s hard to think you’re in a cultish spot because the SCJ members who are UCD students are also very normal UCD students with social lives, diverse interests, friends outside of SCJ, great jobs,” Individual C said. “I often referred to that when I was getting suspicious sometimes. But, I think that’s what made this one so hard to be identified as a cult.”

*The names of the sources, who spoke to The California Aggie on the condition of anonymity for fear of harassment, were changed. 
Written by: Rebecca Gardner — campus@theaggie.org

Ongoing efforts toward police accountability include a task force with student input

As the trial for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin began this week, Chancellor Gary May and Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Renetta Garrison Tull spoke to The California Aggie about UC Davis’ most recent anti-racism initiatives. 

In May 2020, Chauvin was charged with the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, while on duty. The video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes even after Floyd expressed an inability to breathe went viral, sparking worldwide protests against racial injustice, police violence and corruption.

May’s letter to the university following Floyd’s death described the chancellor’s dismay with police violence against the Black community and exhaustion regarding his lived experiences as a Black man. 

Following Floyd’s killing, UC Davis introduced several anti-racism initiatives, including the Next Generation Reforms to Advance Campus Safety Task Force.

The task force’s first report was published in December 2020 and highlighted the ongoing controversy regarding the role of police on college campuses, particularly at student protests.

It also emphasized the importance of accountability in police behavior. Student members of the task force expressed concerns regarding a lack of connection and trust between police officers and members of the UC Davis community. 

They also spoke about a general fear of police, particularly among immigrant students, and a lack of transparency on the part of police officers. 

According to Tull, the task force’s final report will be published in June 2021.

“We made sure people knew that there was a listening session [for the task force] and that there were no right or wrong things to say,” Tull said. “It was a qualitative process of collecting data from the campus, which includes the Police Accountability Board (PAB).”

The PAB, established in 2014, allows students, professors and staff on UC Davis’ campus to file complaints on its website should they have a negative interaction with a campus police officer. 

Any identifying information is voluntary, so there is limited data available about the racial, ethnic or gender identities of the complainants, according to the most recent PAB report.

In his interview with The Aggie, May spoke of concerns raised by students regarding police activity on campus and emphasized the importance of community-based policing. 

“In my mind, we actually have a fairly progressive approach to campus safety at UC Davis,” May said. “I say that pretty confidently, and I’ve been attending the seminars held by UCOP [University of California Office of the President]. It seems to me that our sister campuses might not be as far along as we are in terms of progressive policing.”

Nevertheless, advocacy groups like Cops off Campus have pushed for police officers to be removed from the UC Davis campus entirely. 

May has publicly disagreed with this stance, saying that he believes Cops off Campus does not offer a constructive solution to the issues at hand.

The annual UC Davis PAB Report from the 2019-2020 school year provided data regarding policing practices on the university’s campus. 

The report addressed and closed four inquiries during that time frame. These inquiries involved allegations of improper use of force, improper police procedures, dishonesty, discourtesy and improper confiscation of property. 

Notably, one 26-year-old woman made allegations regarding discourtesy, intimidation and improper use of force in an interaction with campus police. However, her complaint was characterized as outside of the PAB’s purview since it was made more than 180 days following the aforementioned incident. 

The PAB findings recommended that campus police officers be better trained in de-escalating challenging situations rather than simply ignoring someone’s questions, as this can aggravate the problem at hand. 

They also recommended that the police force encourage officers to clarify and provide legal justification for their actions when arresting someone. 

The PAB requested further information about “updated policies and training” for de-escalation techniques and cultural sensitivity. 

In addition to the implementation of a task force and the continuation of the annual PAB report, the university has developed an anti-racism syllabus and curriculum. 

According to Tull, the term “syllabus” broadly refers to a number of diversity-related initiatives undertaken during the 10 months since Floyd’s death. These include seminars, workshops, racial healing services, town halls and resources for racial trauma and mental health. 

Currently, incoming freshmen are required to complete diversity, equity and inclusion training when they arrive at UC Davis. However, there is no mandatory anti-racism curriculum for students at the moment, May clarified. 

Tull said that the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion recently held a meeting about making mental health and racial trauma resources more available for students, professors and staff members who may be struggling with Derek Chauvin’s trial. The trial has featured graphic cell phone footage of Floyd’s killing and eyewitness accounts from numerous people, several of whom are underage and many of whom broke down while relating their experiences. 

The Black Student Union at UC Davis said in an email that their members were unable to comment on these events. After multiple emails to ASUCD’s Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, there was no response for comment.

May indicated that the university was considering offering resources specifically tailored to the issues raised by the trial of Derek Chauvin this month. 

“The measures can only be reactive, because I think if there’s something that triggers a particular reaction, I want to respond to it, but I don’t want to be the trigger and have people react in an unhealthy way. We will respond appropriately to situations [as they arise],” May said.
Written by: Rebecca Bihn-Wallace — campus@theaggie.org

James Adams reflects on his research studying political hostility after 16 years of teaching at UC Davis

Professor James Adams, Ph.D., graduated from Princeton University with his bachelor’s in economics and went on to sell computers for Hewlett-Packard in the 1980s. After two years of working in the sales industry, he decided to change his trajectory and earned his doctorate in political science at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. 

Having found his true calling in academia, Adams has taught political science at UC Davis for 16 years.

“You might almost say that I was raised to be a professor,” Adams said. “My father was a professor at UC Berkeley. My grandfather was a professor at UCLA. My great grandfather was a professor at Stanford. So, Adamses have been professors in California for close to 100 years now.”

 Adams teaches undergraduate courses on the politics of France, Germany and Britain. He is also currently teaching graduate-level courses on political polarization, political representation in advanced industrial societies as well as political behavior in the same nations.

Adams recently published a book titled, “American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective,” in which he explores animosity and polarization between political parties in the U.S.

“We seem to see so much distrust and hostility across party lines,” Adams said. “And not just between the politicians—but between rank-and-file voters—where Democrats and Republicans seem to not just disagree with each other, but they practically seem to think the other side is just evil.”

The project was in part motivated by Adams looking back to a time before modern political friction, in the 1970s, when Democrats and Republicans were able to respectfully disagree with one another, according to Adams. 

Adams said “you might not believe this” when explaining that people across party lines cooperated and often agreed on issues. Now the two dominant parties view the individuals within their opponents as morally corrupt. 

“Both sides just have these terrible caricatures of the other side,” Adams said. “No matter what the other side does, each side thinks, ‘Well, whatever you are doing, you have bad motives.’” 

His recent research found that income inequality contributes to political hostility across party lines. In terms of disagreement on policy, him and his coauthors found that so-called “cultural issues” such as gay marriage or immigration significantly gave rise to anger.

Adams said that opposing parties could fight about economics without impacting overall hostility toward one another.

“But these fights over race, immigration and the national way of life—which has really showed up in this country in the last four years—[…] seem to really make people angry,” Adams said.

In February 2020, Adams was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching from the UC Davis Academic Senate. 

Adams has also received awards for student mentorship, including the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Consortium for Women and Research from UC Davis. He credits his wife for reminding him that students may feel intimidated approaching professors with research proposals.

“[My wife] said sometimes [for] students, and particularly women students, it can be hard for them to walk into your office and look into your eyes and say, ‘Professor Adams, I would like to write a paper with you,’” Adams said. “I always try to emphasize to all of my graduate students, don’t be afraid and don’t be bashful to come to me and suggest a project or ask for help. I always try to emphasize that I will do everything I can to help you. I will never make you feel bad for asking.”

Professor Erik Engstrom serves as the chair of the political science department and has worked with Adams for 13 years. He said that Adams spends an enormous amount of time and effort in the success of students.

“[Adams] is just a very outgoing, exuberant person,” Engstrom said. “He’s very funny, which I think helps in the classroom, bringing students into the lectures.” 

Timea Balogh, a second-year political science Ph.D. student, has taken graduate-level courses taught by Adams and served as his teaching assistant (TA) throughout the pandemic. She highlighted how humble and down-to-earth Adams is while showing an immense care for his students’ interests and wellbeing.

“Even with 120 students on Zoom, he still started each class making sure how people are hanging in there and how can he can make class better to accommodate the world that we’re living in,” Balogh said. “I would TA for him forever.”

“He’s the kind of person that, from the very first conversation with him, you know you only want good things for him: success, health and respect,” Balogh said.

Adams said that the best part of his job is interacting with students.

“Especially since I am in the later part of my career, when I tend to get tired more easily and get more worried about things, I always come away from being on campus, or even now when I do my Zoom lectures, feeling so good just from interacting with all of you,” Adams said.

Sara Kazemian is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate studying political science, and Adams serves as the chair of her dissertation committee. His graduate-level course on polarization from a comparative lens inspired the topic of her dissertation. 

“I think the thing that strikes me about Dr. Adams is that he’s equitable across the board and very approachable,” Kazemian said. “If you look at his undergraduate classes, his office hours are usually filled when normally students go to TAs.”

Adams said that if he hadn’t been a professor, the only other job he would excel at is baseball broadcasting. Adams’ colleagues and students called up his love for baseball in every conversation. 

“He’s a massive San Francisco Giants fan,” Engstrom said. “When they won the world series, I’ve never seen him happier.”
Written by: Rebecca Gardner — campus@theaggie.org