By Alexandra Cavazos and David Oh
The American meat industry is contributing to Global warming. But How? Cows.
The emission of methane is one of the leading causes of climate change in our world. Methane is created when four hydrogen atoms bond to one atom of carbon and it is the primary component of natural gas, one of our sources of power. However, it also accounts for about a quarter of the global warming that we are currently experiencing.
Cows are the primary culprits as each one releases about 30 to 50 gallons per day. Considering that there are an estimated 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion cows on the planet, that is a colossal amount of methane emission. When cows belch or fart they release methane into our atmosphere. Methane negative effects on our atmosphere is 23 times stronger than Carbon Dioxide. Methane also stays in our atmosphere for about 15 years; its lifespan is small relative to carbon dioxide’s, but still is significant considering how the average cow releases about 100 kilograms of methane each year.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations states that agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. It doesn't help that consumption is increasing every year, resulting an increase in the production of meat and dairy product. More production of meat and dairy products leads to more cows releasing methane. A study shows that producing a kilogram of beef is equivalent to 36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Due to this fact, there are many efforts globally to somehow keep track of and maintain this emission of methane. In a large study involving more than 5,200 lactating cows, researchers were able to discover that methane emissions from dairy cattle can actually be predicted using simplified models. The intake of the feed of the cows is treated as the key factor for this prediction, so these new models require readily available feed-related variables.
There is a lot of collaboration happening since this is such a large database. Researchers worldwide are on a consortium agreement and are providing individual animal data for methane emission and any other related measurements to the main project led by professor of dairy nutrition, Alex Hristov. This accumulative, more simplistic model provides the alternative to the more complex models revolving around both feed intake and detailed chemical composition already being used by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, their model also results in high amounts of uncertainty. A major finding of this research is that revised emission conversion factors pave the way to much-improved emission estimates in national inventories.
This research provides opportunities to include methane emission data by specific regions. This is crucial in improving the accuracy of carbon footprint assessments in specific regions and helps devise possible solutions. Based on an experiment conducted by a lab in Texas, giving cows probiotics in their feed led to a 50 percent reduction in methane emissions.
Are there any solutions? Well, we can start by cutting down on the demand for beef and dairy products. If the nation as a whole started switching to more vegetarian diets or just excluded beef and dairy from their diets completely we could quickly get to the root of the problem. Of course this will most likely never happen.
So what can we do? Well thanks to the University of California we might have a solution that helps. Seaweed! Part of what makes cow produce more methane is what they eat-- seaweed seems to be helping cows cut down on methane emission. Most seaweed food additives have cut down cow’s methane emission by 30%; and some more specific seaweeds cutting down emission by 50%. Seaweed is a weird solution, but cows love the taste! In Spain, giving cows small amounts of chemical compound onions have shown similar, positive results. In India, a national program is optimizing cows' diets to reduce methane emissions and help them produce more milk.
I believe that these efforts and research are very beneficial for our own sake. Although some people may not be aware, our planet is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Having more accurate models for predicting methane emissions is very important in trying to slow down and possibly reverse climate change. As more people are gradually joining in these efforts, I firmly believe that someday, the plant can return to its normal state.
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