Cows and Methane Gas, A New Dietary Approach

Cows and Methane Gas- A New Dietary ApproachA few years ago, researchers at my alma mater the "esteemed cow college" Washington State University looked into whether or not gaseous emissions from cows had an effect on global warming. Surprisingly, the results came in that the methane gases the cows were belching, were also trapping heat and not helping the cause to fight green-house gases. In fact, methane gases are known to have up to 20 times the heat-trapping capability of carbon dioxide.

In Vermont, 15 farms have put their cows on a diet that includes more alfafa and flaxseed, (as opposed to soy and cornfeed which cows eat now), to mimic the grass that cows are supposed to eat. I don't really know and/or understand why the cows cannot be fed grass directly instead of flaxseed, but apparently the current health food craze is affecting us all.

According to Frank Mitloehner, who studies the cow's "eruptions", cows burp and fart "200 to 400 pounds of methane a year."

So far, the cows involved in the experiment have lowered their methane gas emissions by 18%, which is considered to be a significant sep in the dairy industry's future goal of reaching 25% lower emissions.

The initiative to lower emissions of methane gases through diet from cows had its origins in Europe, and had even better results because the dietary changes were expanded to industrial farms while the changes in the United States were limited to just organic farms. The European farms showed a 30% reduction.

It sounds like a joke, but  if you include the environmental impact of cows and other livestock on land, livestock may be a more serious threat to the global ecological system than cars and trucks combined. (No mention is made about how air travel factors into that decision.)