Feed and Methane

Feed and Methane

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
One of the most knowledgeable people I know as it regards the intersection between agriculture and energy is energy reporter Joanna Schroeder. We were having a discussion about biomass being used as a source of feed to cattle and the topic of methane came up. In other words does feeding biomass produce more methane, can you feed cattle certain types of feed in order to reduce methane production. Her answer... "It doesn't look like the change of diet is anything too major. Current feed products that are on the market, they are changing the percentage of different things within that feed and it doesn't cost the farmer anymore. Feed costs would be exponentially greater if we adjusted it to reduce methane emissions. You can argue that humans emit a significantly larger amount of greenhouse gas than cattle or any animal. What are their, 7 billion of us? If you look at the municipal waste problems that we have and if you are buying into the argument that we are going to start seeing clean water shortages, there are 26 states in the US right now that are in some component of what we call a water war, so if you look at being able to do that conversion, what I have seen from technological reports is that the water is cleaner than it is the way that municipalities currently clean water. Drinking water would have to be cleaner. I know people find that abhorrent but it is no better than where we put it now
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