Sustainability In Your Ear: The MooBlue Team Keeps The Beef, Without The Burp

Cattle are one of the most consequential climate problems hiding in plain sight on the dinner table. Livestock are responsible for roughly 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and cattle alone account for about 65% of that sector’s output. Most of it doesn’t come from manure or land use — it comes from inside the cow. Approximately one billion cattle on the planet burp around 3.7 gigatons of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually, more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. A growing number of researchers and companies are focused on a deceptively simple approach: change what a cow eats. A red seaweed called Asparagopsis taxiformis contains bromoform, a compound that blocks the enzymes used by methane-producing microbes in the rumen. Today’s guests didn’t learn about this from a graduate seminar. They’re high school students, and they built an idea for their first company around it. Every January, I judge a Shark Tank-style competition that caps a month-long entrepreneurship program at the Bush School in Seattle. This year, a pitch by three students stopped me cold. Zara, Ellie, and Kai Aizawa are the co-founders of MooBlue, whose tagline — Cut the burp, keep the beef — got a laugh, but whose business concept is entirely serious. Kai is heading to Haverford College in the fall. Zara and Ellie are still freshmen.

MooBlue proposes harvesting Asparagopsis from the Mediterranean, where it is an invasive species currently harming marine ecosystems, processing it into an oil-based feed additive and building a certification and labeling system so consumers can identify beef and dairy products raised using reduced-methane feeds. What struck me wasn’t just the idea. It was the depth of the research: from the biochemistry of rumen fermentation to the intellectual property landscape to a two-segment go-to-market strategy targeting large corporate operations and family farms. They covered the competitive white space, the supply chain, the financial incentives for farmers, and the consumer psychology of premium labeling, all with the ease of people who had genuinely internalized what they were talking about.

The conversation shows that the internet has exploded ceiling of what a curious teenager can discover. When Zara, Ellie, and Kai needed to understand the biochemistry of enteric fermentation, they found recent, peer-reviewed research. When I was their age, those journals would have been available only at a university library, if they existed at all. Today, a high school freshman in Seattle can find a paper out of, understand the biochemistry well enough to explain it clearly, and build a company around the discovery. That changes what a generation can imagine. And it may change what we can collectively accomplish.

You can learn more about the Bush School’s entrepreneurship program at bush.edu.

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Interview Transcript

Mitch Ratcliffe  0:09

Hello! Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. Wherever you are on this beautiful planet of ours, welcome to Sustainability In Your Ear. This is the podcast conversation about accelerating the transition to a sustainable, carbon-neutral society, and I’m your host, Mitch Ratcliffe. Thanks for joining the conversation.

Today we’re going to talk gas, specifically, the methane gas ruminating in the gut of cattle around the world. Livestock are responsible for roughly 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Cattle alone account for about 65% of the livestock sector’s greenhouse gas output, and most of that isn’t from manure or land use. It’s due to enteric fermentation, the microbial process in a cow’s rumen — its gut — that produces methane that reaches the atmosphere as a burp or a fart.

Approximately one billion cattle live on the planet, and they emit around 3.7 gigatons of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually — more than the entire aviation and shipping industries combined. That hamburger on your plate isn’t coming without a significant environmental price. Methane is a particularly potent problem: over a 20-year period, it traps about 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere in roughly a decade. Reducing the volume of this bovine gas can deliver climate benefits faster than almost any other intervention, and that’s why the Global Methane Pledge, signed by more than 150 countries, aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% before 2030.

That’s also why a growing number of researchers and startups are focused on a deceptively simple question: can you change what a cow eats and meaningfully change the climate math? The answer increasingly appears to be yes. A red seaweed called Asparagopsis taxiformis contains bromoform, a compound that inhibits the enzymes relied on by methane-producing microbes in a cow’s gut — in other words, it stops the gas. Peer-reviewed studies, including landmark research out of UC Davis and James Cook University in Australia, have shown that adding small amounts of Asparagopsis to cattle feed can reduce enteric methane emissions by up to 80%, with no adverse effects on the animal, its milk, or its meat production.

But I didn’t learn about this from reading research. It was explained to a group of adults by three high school students, and here’s the backstory. For the past couple of years, in January, I’ve been a judge at a Shark Tank competition that caps a month-long entrepreneurship program at the Bush School in Seattle. The class is taught by a friend and former business partner of mine, and it’s a rigorous program: students research real markets, build real business plans, and pitch to a panel that doesn’t pull punches. I’m the meanest shark, by the way.

This January, a pitch by three students struck me deeply, and I turned into the shark who was ready to invest. So my guests today are Zara, Ellie, and Kai Aizawa, co-founders of MooBlue.

Their tagline, Cut the burp, keep the beef, Got a laugh, but their Asparagopsis-based business concept is serious. MooBlue proposes harvesting the red seaweed from the Mediterranean, processing it into an oil-based feed additive, rather than a powder, as many other companies are considering, and building a certification system so that consumers can identify beef and dairy products raised using reduced-methane feeds.

What struck me wasn’t just the idea. It was the depth of the research these students had done, from the biochemistry of the rumen fermentation process to the competitive intellectual property landscape to a two-segment go-to-market strategy targeting both large corporate operations and smaller farms. They talked about these topics with ease, and it got me thinking about how much more information is available to students now than 50 years ago, when I was their age. They stand not just on the shoulders of historic giants like Newton or Einstein, but of cutting-edge researchers who, in the 1970s, typically worked out of sight and out of mind, sometimes for decades, until their research was found to be relevant and useful. But today, students can find out what’s going on in the lab almost immediately, and that changes the potential for innovation in everything.

So we’re going to talk with Zara, Ellie, and Kai about how they discovered the science behind Asparagopsis, why they chose an oil-based formulation over what competitors are doing, how they think about the intellectual property challenges in this space, and what it’s like to build a climate tech business plan when you’re still in high school. You can learn more about the Bush School at bush.edu.

So, can three high school students with a seaweed, a tagline, and a serious grasp of atmospheric chemistry chart a path toward lower-methane beef? Let’s find out, right after this quick commercial break.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Mitch Ratcliffe  5:14

Welcome to the show, Zara, Ellie, and Kai. Could each of you introduce yourself so folks can hear your voice?

Zara  5:20

My name is Zara, and I’m a freshman at the Bush School.

Ellie  5:24

My name is Ellie, and I’m also a freshman at the Bush School.

Kai  5:27

I’m Kai, and I’m a senior at the Bush School.

Mitch Ratcliffe  5:29

Well, welcome to the show, guys. You did a great job during the Shark Tank competition, and I wanted to start off by asking you to quickly do the pitch you did for us.

Zara  5:38

So our idea is a product called MooBlue. Together, we can cut the burp and keep the beef. It would be a for-profit business working to make the livestock industry more sustainable.

Kai  5:49

In order to do this, our product would use Asparagopsis, a seaweed found in tropical areas that has been shown to reduce methane emissions from cows by up to 98%. Our company aims to harvest and turn Asparagopsis into oil-based feed additive capsules.

Zara  6:04

Currently, there’s a lack of sustainability in the agricultural industry, especially with the over-farming of ruminant animals, which are a high contributor to methane emission output. We hope that people will feel better when they buy methane-reduced meat or dairy products, because they’re helping the environment by contributing minimal methane output to the atmosphere.

Ellie  6:25

We have clearly identified this problem for decades, and scientists have discovered this natural solution years ago. Yet this technology isn’t well known, and so it hasn’t been implemented on a wide scale. We want to make it easier for people to help.

Kai  6:36

The two potential target audiences that we identified were large corporate farms and smaller farms in rural areas. We decided to focus on large corporate farms that have thousands of cattle. If one farm adopts your product, you can reduce emissions at scale immediately, which can help reduce methane emissions more quickly. They also have more capital and face increasing pressures from regulators, investors, and food companies to reduce emissions.

Ellie  7:00

Currently, there are a handful of companies trying to do the same thing as us, but this is still a very new market with lots of white space. We were also thinking that within a cooperative competitive relationship, we could help increase widespread adoption of sustainability, because at the end of the day, our goal is sustainability, not just profit.

Kai  7:20

A brief overview of our marketing plan would be to promote our product through agricultural media, such as Successful Farming magazine, and a strategic partnership with Wendy’s. With Wendy’s, we plan to create a limited-edition burger made using beef from calves with reduced methane emissions. This partnership builds off Wendy’s iconic Where’s the Beef? advertising campaign by reintroducing it as Where’s the Methane?. To distribute our product at scale, including in rural areas, we hope to partner with Cargill, the largest cattle feed distributor in the United States. We’ll also place a clear, visible “methane reduced” label on all of our meat products in stores. This allows farmers to differentiate their beef and charge a higher price for verified low-methane products, giving them an incentive to use our product.

Ellie  8:00

We hope to harvest our Asparagopsis from areas in the Mediterranean, relieving those ecosystems of the negative effects of this invasive species.

Zara  8:09

So in the long run, this product will improve air quality and public health by reducing methane-related ozone pollution, and it will slow climate change by targeting one of the most powerful greenhouse gases. So you should cut the burp and keep the beef with our company. Thanks.

Mitch Ratcliffe  8:24

That was great. And again, this is exactly why I was so impressed with your presentation. You thought this through end to end, not something you would expect in a high school entrepreneurship competition. Tell us how the three of you came together as a team, and what was it that sparked your interest in methane emissions from cattle in the first place?

Ellie  8:46

So for the Cascades program, each of us had to do an individual two-minute elevator pitch on our own unique idea. For me, I’d always kind of known about cows and how they’re a massive contributor to global methane emissions. It’s one of those facts that you learn and it just always stays in the back of your mind. I actually think I first learned it from a weird-but-true book I read in elementary school. I had also done a small project on the effects of Asparagopsis in middle school, but it wasn’t really anything concrete. So when I was running out of ideas for the class pitch, I decided to take my bare-bones MooBlue idea to the class, and it was received really well by my classmates and the teacher. The teacher ended up pairing us three together for the final project.

Speaking just for myself, I was excited to continue this business venture because I wanted to do something that mattered — not just to the individual consumer, but on a wider scale, touching the entire chain from farmers to consumers to the earth. So, basically, how Asparagopsis works: not just cows, but actually all ruminant animals — sheep, goats, even giraffes — have something called a rumen, the largest section of their four-part digestive system. The rumen is essentially a big fermentation vat. It contains tons of microbes and methanogens that help the animal break down the very fibrous plant matter it’s eating. When you see cows chewing their cud, that’s the regurgitation from the rumen to help break things down further, because it’s hard to digest.

This whole process of microbes breaking down fiber is called enteric fermentation, and this is what creates methane as a waste byproduct of the anaerobic microbes. The cow releases it through burping — which is a common misconception, because most people think it comes from farts. Asparagopsis reduces methane because it contains the active compound bromoform. When ingested by the cow — even at just 1% of their diet — bromoform blocks the enzymes used by the microbe to create methane. And there’s actually some hope that the energy the cow no longer wastes on producing methane could be redirected into feed efficiency, potentially lowering costs and boosting productivity for farmers.

Mitch Ratcliffe  11:08

That’s a really impressive and thorough explanation. How did you learn about all of that? One of the things that impressed me most is the research you had access to. How did you find it, and what was the process you went through?

Zara  11:23

During the time we were discovering what our unmet need was, we were looking for clear research, images, or articles that could point to the core of what our solution was going to be. I researched on many reputable sources, such as ScienceDirect, the National Institutes of Health, and Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. We wanted our unmet need to be grounded in a specific research topic: reducing methane emissions in the atmosphere.

I came across an article from UC Santa Cruz written by Sarah Mastrani on algae adoption for cattle feed to help reduce the methane emissions cows were producing. It gave people the main idea of our product in simpler terms. This research article provided me with the reputable knowledge needed to see the real effects of algae — how, in very simple terms, people could really understand the main mission of our company.

Mitch Ratcliffe  12:21

One of the ways you translate the mission of the company is into your labeling that you want to put on beef products, dairy products, and so forth. Tell us about methane-reduced labeling. How’d you come up with that idea?

Zara  12:33

We looked at the cage-free eggs comparison. Why do people choose to buy cage-free eggs? They’re more expensive, but consumers want to make a more humane choice. So we came up with a similar incentive for methane-reduced meat — yes, it’ll be more expensive, but it helps the environment and reduces the methane in the atmosphere. We played off the cage-free eggs example and the kind of motivation that makes people pay a premium for something that does good.

Mitch Ratcliffe  13:06

When you think about what that label looks like — is it a big, prominent label? And how do you convince people it’s legitimate? Because a lot of consumers wonder: can I trust this label, or is this just marketing?

Ellie  13:22

I think it’s really important, with something that has a large emotional marketing factor and represents newer technology, that it be authentic. As this technology gains more momentum, we hope to have an actual governing third-party oversight board, or some type of committee, that could certify products like this. A large label on the packaging that simply says “methane reduced” immediately draws the consumer’s eye, and I think even though it’s framed neutrally, it conveys the same weight that “grass-fed beef” and “cage-free eggs” do. Even though the idea is different, it draws out the same emotions and motivations in consumers.

Ultimately, people want to help the earth. They just don’t know how to do it, and they feel helpless. Something as simple as a label on beef can make people feel happy and proud and guilt-free about their food choices — the same way buying a carton of cage-free milk does.

Mitch Ratcliffe  14:33

Kai, you were the marketing mind behind this. Tell us more about your thinking.

Kai  14:38

We really wanted consumers to be bought in — we wanted returning customers, people who cared about the environment. By having a methane-reduced label, they could feel like they’re contributing, like they’re invested in our meat products.

We were always thinking about incentives. The science alone wasn’t going to keep our product afloat. Even if the technology works, adoption is only going to happen when there’s a clear benefit for the farmers, for the company, and for the consumers who feel like they’re helping the environment. So the label was an easy way to align all three of those values quickly: for consumers, it created an easy emotional signal that the purchase was going to make a difference; for producers and food companies, it created a market advantage against other meat products that don’t carry the methane-reduced label.

Mitch Ratcliffe  15:29

As I listen to you, what I’m struck by is that you believe business can make a positive impact in the world. What attracted you to the entrepreneurship program in the first place? How do you feel about the tools you have available to create a better world?

Zara  15:45

For me personally, I got into entrepreneurship from watching my mom start her own company — career consulting and college counseling. Seeing her go through the steps of finding customers and running a business over the past few years was really influential. And then when I saw the Cascades program, I got excited, because I’d attended a summer entrepreneurial program called eBay, in Berkeley, about two years ago, where you created a company based on one of your ideas and pitched it to your family after a three-week course. I really just enjoyed the idea of building a business, and those two experiences played a huge part.

Kai  16:52

During our Shark Tank program, we got to visit a lot of businesses outside the sustainability space as well — we heard the whole story from Nor’east Candles on how they grew their business from start to finish. I was personally really inspired by how quickly someone can build a business. The key factor was that you have to solve a problem. A clear problem in our world is climate change and global warming, and a really powerful way to address it is to bring as many people as possible into the solution. Creating a product to reduce methane emissions is one way to do that.

Mitch Ratcliffe  17:40

And Ellie — you were the initial founder. What about you?

Ellie  17:44

What drew me to entrepreneurship was the impact it can have when done right. You can go into government and fight for policy, and you can be a scientist and come up with new things, but it’s all somewhat wasted if there’s not someone actively working to implement it. I had noticed that California had passed policy to reduce methane. I read an article saying Asparagopsis was the future of agriculture. And I thought: we have the policy to move it forward, and we have the solution — but nobody is working to connect the two and actually solve this pressing problem. That’s what drew me to entrepreneurship: the impact it can have, and the way it brings people together to actually solve a big issue.

Mitch Ratcliffe  18:46

That’s a great place for us to take a break. We’ve set the table for a great methane-free conversation. Let’s take a quick commercial break — we’ll be right back. Stay tuned.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Welcome back to Sustainability In Your Ear. Let’s continue the conversation with Zara, Ellie, and Kai Aizawa, co-creators of the MooBlue project and students at Seattle’s Bush School. As I listen to you, one thing I wanted to ask: would you be as interested in entrepreneurship and business in general if there weren’t shows like Shark Tank, which of course was the idea that brought us together in the first place?

Kai  19:31

I personally love watching Shark Tank, and it’s been a pretty big motivator for me to try entrepreneurship. But I think the core of entrepreneurship is trying to make as many people happy as possible.

Zara  19:48

Watching Shark Tank and other entrepreneurial shows definitely played a big part for me. When I was younger, my dad would work out in the gym and I’d come in and sit on this little bench watching whatever he was watching, and it always turned out to be Shark Tank. We’d watch episodes back to back, and it became a big bonding thing. It really influenced me into wanting to see the entrepreneurial world create connections between people who watch it and people who want to do good. And the idea of being able to build your own company — to profit or to do good for the environment — played a big part too.

Ellie  20:43

I’m a little different from Zara. I don’t really like watching Shark Tank because I don’t like seeing the investors tear down the business owners. But I think I’d still be just as interested in entrepreneurship without it, because to me, the marketing for entrepreneurship is the outcome. All of these successful businesses are really what made me think, huh, maybe I could do this one day. The success stories are actually a really big draw.

Mitch Ratcliffe  21:20

I want to jump back into the actual plan. One of the things you were particularly focused on was the difference between an oil-based approach to using Asparagopsis in feed versus powder, which is what most companies do. What was the reasoning behind that decision?

Zara  21:41

The oil form is typically considered better than the powder because it offers better stability for the active compound bromoform — lasting at least 12 weeks — whereas the powder can lose its effectiveness a lot faster. The oil also masks the seaweed’s strong taste and smell, making it easier for the cows to consume the product and increasing palatability — meaning it enhances voluntary intake. Cows are more willing to eat it because it doesn’t smell as bad and it tastes a little better mixed into their feed.

Mitch Ratcliffe  22:26

It’s great that you thought about the cows, too, rather than just force-feeding them. Another element of the plan was harvesting the seaweed in the Mediterranean, where it’s an invasive species. Who would do the harvesting, and how did you think about the full supply chain and the benefits it could create for people in those regions?

Ellie  22:47

One thing we noticed when we were researching this is that there’s currently no way to farm Asparagopsis on a scale that would support a business — it’s all very small, experimental farms just getting started, with a lot of ongoing research into the future of that. Rather than our company spending more time and money investing in that research, we decided we could temporarily kill two birds with one stone and harvest Asparagopsis in parts of the Mediterranean where it’s an invasive species wreaking havoc on some natural ecosystems.

We thought we could create partnerships with environmental task forces overseas that are already looking to remove Asparagopsis from those areas, as well as with local divers. We would pay them to harvest it and ship it back to the United States, where our scientists would process it. To be clear, Asparagopsis is causing real harm in those invasive environments — it creates behavioral feeding issues in some invertebrates and releases bromoform into the marine environment, which is toxic to submarine life. We acknowledge that as research progresses and someone does find an efficient way to farm Asparagopsis, it may no longer be cost-effective to import and hand-harvest it. But hopefully by that point, we’ll have made a real impact on the Mediterranean ecosystem as well.

Mitch Ratcliffe  24:47

Another element of your idea was to focus on large cattle feeding operations — CAFOs, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations — compared to small farms, to make your initial impact and prove the product’s efficacy. Why not start with a small farm and actually measure and reduce their emissions? I’m curious about your thinking there.

Kai  25:11

That’s a really good question, and we went back and forth on it for a long time. During our initial presentation, we actually said smaller farms, and then we revised that multiple times. I do see the argument for starting with smaller farms — you could test it out, see how it works, and change your approach if needed. But with our MVP being so achievable, I think jumping straight to the large corporate farms could be a pretty valuable move.

Ellie  25:42

Part of our reasoning for targeting bigger corporations is that smaller and family farms are a lot more likely to try this simply because they’re less profit-driven and more invested in the craft of farming. We didn’t want to take the easier path. Large corporations aren’t keen on spending extra when they don’t need to, so bringing them the research on potential feed efficiency improvements would be meaningful — and they also simply have more cattle, so the emissions impact is much greater.

Mitch Ratcliffe  26:28

So you found that using the Asparagopsis oil might actually mean you have to feed the cattle less, saving farmers money in the long run?

Ellie  26:38

Yes — the research is still ongoing, but scientists are suggesting that because the bromoform inhibits methane production, the energy that used to be wasted as a byproduct of that process could instead be redirected into feeding energy. It’s still being investigated, but if confirmed, it would create a meaningful financial incentive for farmers on top of the environmental benefits.

Mitch Ratcliffe  27:10

You have a slide in your pitch called Why This Matters, pointing out that we are in the process of breaching the 1.5°C threshold right now, which increases the urgency of reducing emissions. Cattle methane is a significant source, at around 14% of annual emissions. How do you respond to people who say the real answer is just to stop eating beef altogether?

Zara  27:34

I think we would respond by saying that beef and dairy are a huge staple in many communities’ diets. I’m not a vegetarian, and a lot of people rely on dairy products to feed their families. Cows also provide natural fertilizer, which is often overlooked.

Ellie  27:58

I do think the over-consumption of meat and dairy products is unsustainable as it is right now, especially with factory farms. Maybe one day we’ll be able to consume less beef and dairy or diminish factory farm herd sizes. But I also think it’s easier for people to add things to their lives than to take things away. If all farms used Asparagopsis — not even as a marketing strategy, just as a standard practice — we would virtually eliminate cattle’s effect on the climate from enteric fermentation. And I think it’s ultimately up to the consumer. For most of them, it’s easier to wrap their head around buying a piece of beef with less methane output than giving up steak forever. Reducing herd sizes would also take too long to implement, because it would drastically reduce profits for farms that depend on that income.

Mitch Ratcliffe  29:04

That’s a fair answer, and it’s a debate that’s going to continue for a long time. As you talk about your access to information and research, I’m really impressed with how much you know. But I wonder — what’s your perception of your ability to find out anything in this world? When I was your age, the likelihood that any of this information would have been available at my local library was very low. You can get on your computer or phone and find this information instantly. Do you have a sense that anything is discoverable and anything is possible if you just find the information you need?

Ellie  29:44

I think it’s a great tool that we have access to so many of these sources, because — drawing it back to this specific example — this research has been out for nearly a decade and almost nobody knows about it, even with the internet. And it makes you think: if we didn’t have the internet, how much less would it be known? We probably wouldn’t even be developing this product, because it wouldn’t show up anywhere we’d find it. I think internet access is really moving science forward by making more people’s work findable. But it can also be dangerous if you’re reading the wrong things.

Zara  30:35

Going off Ellie’s point — on the internet, you don’t know how many people are actually seeing the same document you’re seeing, or whether they’re trying to solve the same problem. So I also think a good research approach involves direct, physical conversations with someone who’s been directly affected by or connected to the problem you’re trying to solve. Those firsthand experiences bring in sources directly from the source, and that allows you to see what people have actually lived, rather than just what the internet describes.

Mitch Ratcliffe  31:36

You’re going to continue your educations, and I’m curious: do you think higher education, the way we traditionally think about it, is the right path for you to keep making progress toward a positive impact on the world? What are your thoughts on your next steps?

Ellie  32:04

Kai’s the next one going to college.

Zara  32:06

Yeah, he’s the one.

Kai  32:08

I’m obviously pretty interested in entrepreneurship. This fall, I’m going to Haverford College. I want to continue doing projects like this, where I’m trying to solve a problem. And I think it’s important to know that it’s not just the knowledge itself you’re gaining, but also the mentorship networks and the environment where people are constantly pushing you to think more and think bigger.

For me, the goal was to combine traditional education with hands-on experience — exactly like the Shark Tank program. This project wouldn’t have happened without the mentorship we had. David, our teacher and mentor, was such a great guide. He walked us through all the steps. I went into this literally knowing nothing about entrepreneurship, and by the end I felt like a pro — like I could walk someone else through building their own business step by step. Having someone constantly challenging your ideas makes a huge difference.

Mitch Ratcliffe  33:11

It sounds like the experience of learning is what’s most engaging for each of you. Is that right?

Zara  33:19

That’s fair, yeah. Our school really prioritizes experiential education, which is what the Cascades program was designed to do — we got to go visit local businesses and see how they were actually operating. That played a big part in letting us retain so much information, because we got to see how things worked in practice. And as Kai said, David always challenged our ideas and always gave us something to think about, which really pushed us to want to discover more and make the idea even better.

Mitch Ratcliffe  33:56

What’s your advice for adults? What would you recommend they do to unlock all of this knowledge you have and give you a shot at changing the world? How can adults help you get there faster?

Ellie  34:10

Well, everyone always says kids are the future, which is true. But when people say that, it sounds like they’re saying, “Okay, let’s wait 20 years for some kid to do this great thing.” Adults are still in power, and kids are always coming up with newer ideas and fresh perspectives. That’s genuinely great. But without adults using their power — in government, pushing for new legislation, or just supporting these ideas in practice — a lot of these ideas won’t get off the ground. Adults have experience that these kids don’t. If they use that experience to advocate for young people’s ideas and make them more widespread, that would really help get them off the ground.

Zara  35:07

I agree with Ellie on that. Kids are the future, but why would you wait 30 years for a problem you could solve today if you just helped a kid out? We can definitely come up with great ideas, but we can’t execute them without adult support — parents, ultimately, have the final say. If we had a joint team effort with everyone working together, it would really help take big ideas to the next level.

Mitch Ratcliffe  35:42

Multi-generational solutions are where we need to go. How would you change school? Would you make it more like adult life? Or more like childhood used to be, before students had to work 24/7 to impress parents and get good grades?

Kai  36:01

I mean, personally, I would love to be prepared for what I’m actually going to do in the future. But I also understand the value of letting people creatively express themselves, and a lot of that involves experiential learning — at the Bush School, that’s really highly valued. You’re always trying to solve problems on your own, not relying on someone else to hand you the answer. I think that’s very valuable.

Mitch Ratcliffe  36:25

The Bush School is a remarkable environment. It does allow you to stand up and do your thing, and that’s a great model for the rest of the country’s educational system.

Zara  36:35

We’re all very grateful to be able to attend this school.

Mitch Ratcliffe  36:38

What’s one thing that each of you learned during this project — whether about climate science, business, or entrepreneurship — that surprised you or changed the way you think about our potential to build a sustainable world?

Zara  36:50

I think the biggest thing for me was learning about scale in business. We start with these small ideas, but if we can scale a product, it can reach bigger communities and bigger levels. MooBlue is about creating a more sustainable atmosphere by reducing methane emissions from cattle. That’s a good idea, but an idea needs to be scaled and taken in steps to actually be achieved. If we could get it in front of people with more power than three students, that would take it to the next level. Scale is the big thing I learned.

Kai  37:47

For me, it was the importance of aligning incentives. At the beginning, I personally assumed that if something was a good idea and people could easily see its value, it would naturally become a successful product. But that’s not how it works. As we got deeper into the project, we realized that adoption only happens once it also makes financial sense. It kind of shifted how I view entrepreneurship entirely.

Ellie  38:16

For me, drawing it into the climate science aspect of your question: doing research into the sustainability side of science has really opened my eyes to just how much work has been done to create environmentally conscious solutions to some of the most pressing environmental issues. The discovery of Asparagopsis as a viable way to reduce methane is great research, but as I’ve said before, it’s essentially nothing if we fail to implement it. Sustainability will continue to build momentum, but only with the help of business owners working to implement it and make it achievable for ordinary people.

Mitch Ratcliffe  38:51

Y’all have done such an amazing job, both on the pitch and in this conversation. Thank you so much. So — is MooBlue going to be a world-changing effort? Are you going to stick with it?

Zara  39:04

One day, we’d love to see meaningful methane reduction in the atmosphere. We’d have to talk about it as a team, but I think it would be incredible to see that happen.

Mitch Ratcliffe  39:19

Well, thank you so much for your time, guys.

Zara  39:23

Thank you so much for having us.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Mitch Ratcliffe  39:30

Welcome back to Sustainability In Your Ear. You’ve been listening to my conversation with Zara, Ellie, and Kai Aizawa, co-founders of MooBlue, a business concept developed as part of the entrepreneurship program at the Bush School in Seattle. Their idea — harvesting Asparagopsis, a methane-suppressing red seaweed, and processing it into an oil-based cattle feed additive to reduce emissions — is serious climate tech by any measure, even if its authors are still a freshman, a freshman, and a senior in high school.

What struck me most in this conversation is how clearly these three students understand the full shape of the problem they’re trying to solve. They didn’t arrive at Asparagopsis by accident. They found peer-reviewed research from UC Davis, James Cook University, and the National Institutes of Health, synthesized it, and then built a go-to-market strategy that accounts for farmer incentives, consumer psychology, supply chain logistics, and competitive intellectual property dynamics.

The clarity of their problem framing — that a scientifically validated solution has existed for nearly a decade and simply hasn’t been implemented effectively at scale — reflects the kind of systems thinking that is usually hard-won in adulthood, not assumed by people who are still learning to drive. And Zara, Ellie, and Kai’s understanding of the role business can play in bringing scientific ideas to life is a challenge to the idea that profit will always win over positive outcomes.

Ellie put it precisely: you can have policy and you can have research, but if nobody is working to connect them, the problem doesn’t get solved. And Kai came to the same conclusion from a different angle — he started with the assumption that a good idea would naturally succeed, then learned through the project that adoption only follows when incentives are aligned for everyone in the chain, from the farmer’s feed costs to the consumer’s sense of agency at the grocery store. That insight is one that a lot of experienced entrepreneurs are still working out.

Starting with the problem rather than a solution in search of a problem is the best first step when launching a company. And our conversation about media and information access was the most encouraging segment for me, and I think the most consequential.

The Shark Tank format was familiar; it’s a model that equipped them with tools for presenting and pressure-testing an idea, and it clearly shaped their intuition about what was fundable and what a good pitch looks like. But the deeper point is that the internet has done something extraordinary to the ceiling of what a curious teenager can discover. When I was their age, the journals containing this research would not have been available at my local library. They would have been at a university library, if they existed at all. Most of these journals are a product of the internet.

Today, a high school freshman in Seattle can find a paper out of James Cook University, understand the biochemistry well enough to explain it clearly, and identify white space in the competitive landscape, and then think about building a company around what she found. That changes what a generation can imagine, expanding the scope of what’s possible for all of us, and it can give us genuine hope in the climate era.

I think Zara, Ellie, and Kai are living proof of that. The harder question, which they answered honestly, is what it takes to close the gap between discovery and impact. Their answer: adult support, legislative leverage, and the willingness of established businesses to act on incentives that align sustainability with profitability. These are key to thinking about the future of our circular economy, our sustainable economy, and human life.

Kids are the future. And as Ellie challenged us: why would you wait 30 years for a problem you could solve today? That’s not being naive. That’s exactly the kind of impatience we need. Adults can step up and help these kids make the changes they imagine. After all, it is a multigenerational challenge that we face, and we’ve left the world in a state that’s going to take generations to repair.

So stay tuned, and I hope you’ll take a look at our archive of more than 540 episodes of Sustainability In Your Ear — perhaps sharing one with your friends. Writing a review on your favorite podcast platform helps your neighbors find us. You’re the amplifiers that spread ideas and create less waste. Please tell your friends, your family, your co-workers, and the people you meet on the street that they can find Sustainability In Your Ear on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audible, or whatever purveyor of podcast goodness they prefer.

Thank you for your support. I’m Mitch Ratcliffe. This is Sustainability In Your Ear, and we will be back with another innovator interview soon. In the meantime, folks, take care of yourself, take care of one another, and let’s all take care of this beautiful planet of ours. Have a green day.

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