Watching the debate on the various aspects of climate change and how the Green New Deal was going to positively impact the outcomes, it struck me that there is a plethora of material to research and try to understand if any of it held (clean) water?
Having come from an agricultural family (dairy cattle), hearing the pleas of some of these climate change advocates to eat less beef really struck me as not only a ridiculous point of view, but also one that required examination to see whether the viewpoint had any merit? Could our cattle be a massive contributor to green house gases?
As it turns out, cattle do actually belch out roughly 220 pounds of methane gas per cow, per year. Wow! Who knew? This, according to a study at UC Davis, where they actually placed a dairy cow’s head in a plastic bag and fed her while measuring the methane she was releasing. However, the professor driving the study did not support eating less beef and disagreed that by doing so we would save the world. In fact, his findings were quite interesting.
**Quick side-note to the AOC-followers out there: While the Green New Deal didn’t specifically call out cows, it did talk at length about lowering agricultural emissions. Then her office released several documents, including an FAQ sheet to NPR that does talk about “We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast” … no, really, it’s in the FAQ; I downloaded it if you’d like to read it. But the ill-informed AOC and her staff are fixated on the wrong end of the cow. It’s actually belching, not farting, that accounts for most of this. Apparently, her head is located in the wrong place on this topic?
It is only fair, since this Green group of people are calling for, essentially, the gradual elimination of our Belching Big Mac Buddies, to explore the topic a bit further. Again, I refer in part to the UC Davis study, where they noted that beef cattle do account for 2% of all US-based emissions, and ruminants account for 4% of all emissions from the US. Wait – what’s a ruminant, you ask? Great question: Ruminants are essentially those animals that have a multi-stomach approach to fermenting plant materials to extract nutrients. It’s not just cattle; it’s also sheep, goats, deer, giraffes, and over 50 different species globally, including a crazy-looking one called a Markhor. So yes, globally it is estimated that 14.5% of all green house gases come from livestock ruminants. So, AOC, grab your rifle and start traveling the world to eliminate every one of these evil beasts in our fragile ecosystem in which they all play a part. I do feel a bit sorry for AOC; it appears she didn’t make her father watch the Lion King (over and OVER) when younger – otherwise she would understand the Circle of Life.
Interestingly, we do appear to be doing much better with our US-based agriculture over the years, however. Did you know that in the 1970s there were 140 million cattle needed to meet demand, yet today we need only 90 million to meet demand? We get more meat today from less cows. Did you know that India has the largest cattle population in the world, yet they eat the least meat and therefore their cows live longer, releasing more gases? Did you also know that Asia in general is expected to triple its beef demand by 2050, as our population globally grows past 10 billion people? But here’s the most fun fact: By introducing 1% seaweed into cattle feed, we can reduce belched methane by 60%? There are lots of other debates that are being debunked around adverse impacts to grasslands from over-grazing; however, the health of the grasslands are actually improving as a result of proper herd management by ranchers, which is leading to more carbon being captured and stored in root systems, etc. Suffice it to say that elimination of ruminants is not the answer.
From my perspective, my position is to defend our slow, lumbering beefy beasts that make our rodeos have purpose and our BBQs have flavor. That also compels me to also defend the annual pullers of Santa’s sleigh, not to mention the mighty mascot of the liberal capitol of Colorado: The grass-eating beast of the University of Colorado – Ralphie the belching Buffalo.
