Saving the World One Cow Fart at a Time
Raising cattle contributes to global warming in a big way. The animals expel large amounts of methane when they burp and fart, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. U.S. beef production, in fact, roughly equals the annual emissions of 24 million cars, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. That’s a lot of methane.
Still, most people probably wouldn’t be inclined to swap their juicy steak for a bowl of beans.
Researchers think there may be a better way. Rather than ask people to give up beef, they are trying to design more climate-friendly cattle. The goal is to breed animals with digestive systems that can create less methane. One approach is to tinker with the microbes that live in the rumen, the main organ in the animals’ digestive tract. These tiny organisms enable fermentation during digestion and produce the methane released by the cattle.
A day after Christmas and we’re coming in hot! The Topic? Cow Farts, and how solving this riddle may be the very savior of the human species ….and the earth. To prevent this :
And This :
And This:
OK, maybe not that last one but who knows. The fact of the matter is the cow fart problem needs to get solved. Solutions like these give hope that something may be able to get done that really make an impact and puts a dent in the methane numbers. Unfortunately, I think this is a problem that’s gonna stay stagnate or most likely get worse as the world population continues to rise. We constantly need more beef to meet the demand, in order to do this we need to breed more cattle, more cattle = more farts. To add in a nice double whammy, the increased number of cattle need room to graze so what do you think we’re “humans” doing? Yep, cutting down the only thing thing that has a fighting chance to off-set all theses farts – rain forests. Many in Washington and in the environmental community won’t go near the issue because of the massive lobbing power of the food/agriculture industry. To tell Americans that they need to cut out the beef just seems so un-American. Even if people begin to convert to plant based diets the population continues to rise and in all likelihood the farts will too. So, I’m all in on these Britt’s and their quest to save the world one cow fart at a time. God Speed Mates!
