Cows & Methane Emissions
Getting serious about climate change would mean finally addressing the gorilla - or, more appropriately, the cow -- in the room. If you really care about the environment, you'd leave the cheese -- and all meat and dairy products for that matter -- off your plate - Neal Barnard MD
HWN Suggests
Cows -- Not Coal -- Are the Real Climate Change Culprits
Cows are ruminants, meaning that microbes in a cow's rumen or "fore-stomach" ferment whatever the animal has been eating, creating methane, which is belched into the air. Cattle raised for beef or dairy products are prolific methane producers.
Were there just an occasional cow around, no one would care. But if the 100 million cattle living in the United States at any given time all stood on a scale simultaneously, their collective weight would far exceed that of the U.S. human population. And every last one is belching out methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
So as weather patterns become more and more chaotic, blame…
Featured
NY attorney general sues world's largest beef producer over methane emissions, climate commitments
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing JBS USA, the world's largest producer of beef, over the company's emissions and for "greenwashing" by allegedly misleading the public about its environmental impact.
Articles of Interest
Cows and Climate Change
Cattle are the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane. Methane from cattle is shorter lived than carbon dioxide but 28 times more potent in warming the atmosphere
First They Came for the Cars, Then the Cows
The climate lobby is now aiming to use taxes and regulation to restrict your meat consumption.
In Clampdown on U.S. Methane Emissions, Belching Cattle Get a Pass
Livestock is a major source of greenhouse gas, but agriculture doesn’t get the same tough treatment as the energy industry.
Methane emissions additive approved in Canada
Bovaer neutralizes methane in the rumen. When microbes in the rumen break down feed, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are released. These two gases are combined in the presence of an enyzme. Bovaer works by suppressing the enzyme and reducing the amount of methane that is created.
Methane emissions are driving climate change. Here’s how to reduce them
Agriculture is the predominant source. Livestock emissions – from manure and gastroenteric releases – account for roughly 32 per cent of human-caused methane emissions. Population growth, economic development and urban migration have stimulated unprecedented demand for animal protein and with the global population approaching 10 billion, this hunger is expected to increase by up to 70 per cent by 2050. Agricultural methane doesn’t only come from animals, though. Paddy rice cultivation – in which flooded fields prevent oxygen from penetrating the soil, creating ideal conditions for methane-emitting bacteria – accounts for another 8 per cent of human-linked emissions.
‘Cows Are the New Coal.’ How the Cattle Industry Is Ignoring the Bottom Line When It Comes to Methane Emissions
Cows and other ruminants release methane as a byproduct of their digestive process. A single cow can release around 250-500 liters of methane a day. More methane is produced when the animals’ waste is collected in holding ponds, a typical practice for large scale industrial meat producers. The one billion cows used in the global meat and dairy industries, combined with other animals raised for livestock, are responsible for releasing the methane equivalent of some 3.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year—accounting for some 44% of global anthropogenic methane. If the global livestock industry were its own country, it would be the world’s third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, falling between U.S. and India when it comes to total greenhouse gas emissions.
