Global warming - to what extent is the cattle industry responsible?
Published:November 25, 2021
Summary
The climate issue has been in the headlines lately. This article was written in the week that begins in Glasgow, Scotland, the Climate Conference, with the participation of many world leaders announcing the intention to completely eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), by 2050. The global dairy industry is in this context and it is also in the headlines,...
Dear Isreal, Good that you bring this issue to the forum. I am getting so frustrated about people blaming the cow for global warming. A cow does not 'produce' CO2, it recyclels it. The CO2 exhaled by the cow is used by the grass to grow. Eaten again by the cow and used for her energy to produce milk and meat. You could say that grass is a 'natural solar panel'. It stores solar energy and makes it available for later use. That is completely different from the CO2 emitted by a car. I cannot digest grass and in large parts of the globe only grass can grow. So we should be grateful to the cow for converting that grass into something we can digest. The problem of global warming is people. There are too many of them.
Frank van Eerdenburg
Not too many people!
1. There are too many who are trying to reduce the world to a size that they think they can embrace. Let me explain - today more and more people believe that what can be calculated is the main thing, and what cannot be calculated is not important. It is possible today to calculate the anthropogenic impact, but let's compare it with volcanic eruptions and their impact on the intensity of evaporation of the world's oceans.
2. If we look at the productivity of today's world agriculture, we will clearly see that it is able to feed the entire population of the world, if politicians set this as a real task. Today, we see a desire to slow down its development and intensity.
3. A very timely and necessary article! But we can talk about reducing methane emissions in terms of increasing the productivity of lactating cows, by increasing the production of butyrate in the rumen and reducing the activity of methanogenic archaea.
Avsejs Jofis
Yes we can feed them all. But then we must stop wasting 30% of the produced food. However,
the population of the world is still growing and there is a limit. Furthermore, we need cattle to convert grass and other plants that we cannot eat. If the cows don't eat it, it will be composted and turned into CO2 and CH4 anyway.