Cow Fart Myths Pt 4
I’m Bob Larson. Dairy and beef cattle are not to blame for climate change. So says, professor Frank Mitloehner, air quality specialist at UC-Davis Department of Animal Sciences.
Mitloehner says the greenhouse gases are much different than others, current methods for assessing global warming are inaccurate, and that greater demand means more cattle. But, how much blame should they get …
MITLOEHNER … “Well, it’s always in the eye of the beholder, okay. So, but I’ll give you the naked numbers here. So, in the United States the beef sector emits 3% of all greenhouse gases. The dairy sector emits 2% of all greenhouse gases.”
Mitloehner says the real culprits are transportation, energy production, and the cement industry, that create 80% of all greenhouse gases …
MITLOEHNER … “So, what I’m telling you here is that the rates are unbelievable and this is a major source and instead of dealing with these mega-polluters we are dealing with cow burps, and that’s just laughable.”
Even so, Mitloehner says California has seen a reduction in livestock emissions of 25% in in just the past three years …
MITLOEHNER … “We are on a path to reduce carbon emissions, in California’s livestock and dairy system, by 40% within 10-years from now. Now, you show me any other sector of society that has these kind of success stories to tell. We now have to tell these success stories because these are things that we do and we hardly ever talk about it.”
Mitloehner says despite the claims made by others, the livestock industry is doing its part to lessen its impact on the environment.
