Creative Thinking about Reducing Livestock Carbon Emissions
The easiest way to reduce carbon emissions from cattle and other livestock is to eat less meat. Perhaps by adhering to a Meatless Monday! But in lieu of a widespread reduction in the consumption of meat, it is always nice to hear that scientists are thinking creatively about ways to cut down on livestock emissions.
According to Norimitsu Onishi of the The New York Times in an article entitled “Trying to Stop Cow Burps from Heating Up Planet,” scientists are studying the stomachs and eating habits of kangaroos in an effort to come up with ways to tinker with the diet of farmed cows to reduce the methane in their burps. Onishi explains, “At any given point, after munching and regurgitating grass, tens of millions of Australian cattle, as well as sheep, are belching methane gases nonstop into the air.” Because methane is considered to be significantly more effective than carbon dioxide in accelerating global warming, the Australian meat industry is pumping $24 million into research efforts to reduce the environmental impact of large-scale animal production. And, “while cattle belch enormous amounts of methane to digest the food, kangaroos release virtually none.”
But, like the conservationists that Onishi refers to in the article, I can’t help but wonder whether it is a good idea to manipulate cattle feed – and perhaps even the cows themselves – to make them more like kangaroos. Or whether eating more kangaroo meat (?!) as suggested in the article by kangaroo harvester Sharyn Garrett is an acceptable solution. I’ll stick to reducing my meat intake altogether, thank you very much!
Comments
I find this idea very funny. Perhaps it’s the way to attract people doing this!
I never had kangaroo before, I wonder what it tastes like.
This is ridiculous. I don’t know how many cows there are on the planet now, as opposed to 30 years ago or 100 years ago. I do know that the human race has destroyed a lot of species of animals and severely reduced the populations of others.
A lot of the problems of the world, whether it’s methane from cow emissions or increasing obesity and diabetes in humans, started when people began tampering with the natural way of things.
Let cows live outdoors and graze. Feed them some hay and grain in the winter when grass is scarce. Stop manipulating vegetables so that they ripen in the boats on the way to the grocery store and use locally grown foods.
I don’t know if the U.S. government still pays farmers not to grow crops, but I’m all in favor of subsidizing new farms that do things the old fashioned way, cultivating heirloom crops that taste better and contain more nutritional value than the mass produced foods available in stores today.
I am tired of reading about scientists messing with our food. Genetically manipulated cows fed unnatural processed foods probably caused the methane issue in the first place.