Posted on 12/10/2006 3:02:02 AM PST by MadIvan
AT LAST, evidence that global warming is a load of hot air. Cow flatulence has attracted the attention of ministers after emerging as an environmental menace to rival factory chimneys, Chelsea tractors and cheap air travel.
Bovine emissions account for around one million tonnes of methane a year in the UK and now the government wants farmers to change what they feed the animals to cut down greenhouse gases.
Scientists have already conducted experiments on different cattle feed to determine which one best cuts down gaseous after-effects, and ministers have not ruled out action to force farmers to change their cows' diet.
Officials have worked out that agriculture contributes 7% of all the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. The sector accounts for 36% of Britain's emissions of methane, and farm animals - chiefly cows - contribute the vast majority of it.
The problem is worse in Scotland, which has a higher concentration of agriculture, meaning farm animals produce 46% of methane emissions.
Methane has been described by the United Nations as 23 times more "warming" than carbon dioxide. A UN report reveals that: "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems."
The answer, according to scientists at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), is for farmers to alter what they are piling into their cows' front ends.
A Defra spokeswoman said:
"We do encourage farmers to look at this research and consider acting on it. There is no regulation [saying] they will have to change fodder, although that may be something we will have to look into in the future."
Britain's attempts to get to grips with the issue are in line with a growing trend in research into cows' digestive systems around the world. Scientists at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen have recorded impressive reductions by introducing a mixture of organic sugars and a special bacterium into the animals' diet.
Belgian researchers have found that adding fish oil to fodder reduced methane emissions in cattle by up to 80%, while the Australians are even experimenting with a flatulence-reducing vaccine.
And the UK, too, is finally falling into line. In a parliamentary answer politely entitled "Bovine Emissions" last week, farming minister Ian Pearson said "recent research suggests that substantial methane reductions could be achieved by changes to feed regimes".
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
I wonder how they're going to deal with this one if the diet fails - send a fellow from the Department of Environment strategically inserting a lot of corks?
Regards, Ivan
What is wrong Ivan, you can't tell that the plan is to turn us all into organic vegatarians? I can see that one coming from miles away.
Naw...don't you see it will be a call for vegetarianism, then we won't need to breed and feed cows. It is the demand for beef that caused global warming...
Regards, Ivan
It postulated that the UN would send its armies into the western US and Brazil to stamp out radical beef farmers because bovine flatulence was a lethal threat to mankind.
I got a good laugh out of that one.
Sending the UN Army into the western US.... My God the undertakers would be working three shifts.
L
The problem is primarily caused bu Ruminants (animals with 2 stomachs)
At one time the were more buffalo on the U.S. prairie than there are cattle now. Buffalo are ruminants, too.
The list of Ruminants isn't all that long. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can post a list.
Cats, Dogs, and Horses ARE NOT ruminants. (at least that's what I've been told)
Huge bison herds used to roam the plains and the planet seemed to survive in good shape.
The article's title is misleading, IMO.
Regards, Ivan
Huge bison herds used to roam the plains. While farting.
Glad I wasn't there. The campfire scene from "Blazing Saddles" pales in comparison.
Didn't enormous prairie fires occur frequently in those days?
Okay, how about this -- Bean-O for Bessie?
I can see the government funding a marine program to study the impact of whale flatulence on the environment, maybe tasking a few subs to trail and sniff.
Or how about a rig like the tubes in "Matrix", except hooked up so farmers can capture and process the methane, thereby reducing dependence on mid-East oil.
Such a system could provide alternative employment for French vintners, who could apply their distinguished noses to the task of establishing the right mix of, say -- Guernsey and Angus flatulence -- for optimum energy use.
I'm sure the cows would get used to it after a while (the tubes, not the sniffing).
Maybe not, but what my dog lacks in volume, he sure makes up for in potency!
True, cows and bison are ruminents, but that doesn't mean that other animals don't produce methane when they fart. Humans are included in this. In fact, as far as I know, all animals that fart, which includes all mammals (I think), produce methane when they fart. Meat eaters, plant eaters, and omnivores.
Bison sitting around a camp fire lighting farts?
Why single out the bovines? Don't humans contribute to the methane problem?
Coming soon to the legislature near you....today it's trans fat...tomorrow beans and cabbage will be outlawed. ;^)
They're coming for your cabbage. ;^)
Naw, congress would never pass legislation against hot, noxious gas. It would be too much like outlawing themselves.
Oh wait -- the ethics regulations and child protection laws they have passed don't seem to slow the congressthings down much, do they?
WHOA there pardner, SOLAR ENERGY makes green grass, cows eat green grass, we eat cows; thus the environmentalists DREAM : SOLAR ENERGY into FOOD, ie, more methane = global warming = more seawater evaporated = more rain = more green grass = more cows = more FOOD from natural SOLAR ENERGY. WOW, are we onto something here?
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