Archive for August 8, 2009
Spotlight: Cow Farts
Cow farts are a major source of greenhouse gas, predominantly methane – in fact, the leading source of methane emissions in Australia. According to this video from National Geographic, the manure from an average dairy cow (in the UK, though) equates to about 1.5 tonnes* of carbon dioxide – apparently about the equivalent of a commuter driving to work alone every day. I do wonder if that commuter is driving short distances in the UK, but with heavy traffic. It might be different in different parts of the world. It also depends on what the cows eat. In Australia, most cows are just put out to pasture, although often their feed is supplemented in times of drought. In other countries, it’s very common to feed cows on wheat, maize, soy beans, sugar beet and other similar foods.
Suffice it to say though, 1.5 tonnes is about five times as much carbon dioxide as we offset on one flight from Brisbane to Melbourne last week. Dairy cows and farts. Yeowch.
A cow sniffs at a photographer's camera in Hamburg, Germany. Photograph: Ulrich Perrey/EPA
There is the obvious solution – don’t eat beef or consume dairy. Clearly if even I, a super hardcore greenie, is having trouble giving up cheese, the rest of the world won’t necessarily love this idea. So a more complex (yet, actually quite simple) solution has been put forth.
Feed the cows a diet that is more natural. This means mixing finely-cut straw and hay in with their food. Apparently, this natural diet means the cows are chewing longer and more, increasing saliva production and fermentation in the stomach – thus less gas. Other benefits include increased milk yield (more food is digested so can go towards making milk), the cows are healthier and happier. All this even though the cows aren’t particularly keen to eat the straw, so it has to be hidden in their ‘regular’ (read crops, not pasture) food.
Folks in the UK and New Zealand particularly are getting on the bandwagon – even major chocolate producer Cadbury is keen.
I still want to reduce anything produced using animal products (I drink soy milk, don’t eat yoghurt, custard or sour cream, and I’m dramatically reduced my chocolate and ice-cream intake… it’s really the cheese that is the kicker). At least in the meantime though, and for all the other omnivores in the world who can’t imagine going vegan, this is a better thing for the cows and the environment.
Of course, you could always convert the cow manure to biofuel and use it to power farm trucks like they’re doing in California. I might take a pass on the methane-catching back-pack for cows though. I kinda feel sorry for the cow.
*Note: Some other sources put this figure much lower. For example, the article about Cadbury puts it at 80kg – 120kg per cow per year; clearly much less than 1.5 tonnes.. yet strangely, still the equated to annual carbon emissions from your average family car.
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