Why cow farts are slowly becoming a global concern - Experts explain

Hilarious as it may seem, the waste product from these four-chambered ruminants is increasingly becoming a risk to the rest of the world and so is their burps.

While their meat and milk serve as nutritious meals to meat-loving people across the globe, cattle have been discovered by scientists as one of the biggest contributors to methane in the environment.

The microbes in their stomachs ferment food they ingest to aid with digestion and the process produces methane which they emit when they burp or fart.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, methane is a hydrocarbon that is a primary component of natural gas and also a potent greenhouse gas.

Compared to their farts, over 90% of cow burps produce methane in the atmosphere.

Environmental scholar Giampiero Grossi, at the Tuscia University in Viterbo, Italy said that ruminant livestock is responsible for about 5.5% of the greenhouse gasses that come from human activity and more than 70% of livestock emissions are from cows.

And in a 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report titled, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the impact of the livestock industry was highlighted. The report emphasized that livestock contributes nearly 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions and methane is top of the list.

How does methane contribute to climate change?

The US EPA indicates that methane gas is about 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Its presence in the atmosphere is instrumental to global warming because it affects the earth’s temperature and climate system. It accounts for 16 percent of global emissions and traps heat in the atmosphere. The FAO notes that cows are responsible for nearly 10% of greenhouse gases generated worldwide by human activity.

Methane is broken down faster than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Kill the beef to save the world?

Emerging solutions to the glaring problem of methane produced by cows include a shift from beef toward other sources of protein and nutrition like poultry, fish plant-based foods. Researchers at the World Resources Institute say a shift away from carbon-intensive beef to more sustainable food options is ideal. 

Industrial farms can make cows more climate-friendly by changing their diets; research in California suggests that adding a small amount of seaweed to a cow’s feed can reduce its methane production by half. Food companies can start to offer products like “blended burgers,” which mix other ingredients with beef to make the food more sustainable. Governments could eliminate subsidies for meat and dairy producers and support farmers transitioning to more sustainable crops.

Others like FutureFeed, a group of scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and James Cook University propose seaweeds as the biggest most effective livestock methane solution. The Asparagopsis seaweed which was tested by the team found a compound called bromoform which stops microbes in the cow’s guts that produce methane.

The seaweed which is native to Australia is manufactured into a freeze-dried powder or an edible oil. A small amount of this feed material included in cattle’s feed, the scientists say will dramatically reduce methane emissions. Lab trials, according to the company have shown a reduction of up to 95% of methane emissions.

Since it is rare to farm, FutureFeed is reproducing the ingredient in a lab and hoping to produce it in other forms.

But beef is an excellent source of nutrients and protein and other researchers are exploring ways to genetically modify cattle for beef. The US Information Technology and Innovation Foundation for instance has suggested the reduction of cattle methane emissions with the help of “gene editing”.

Meanwhile, countries like New Zealand have announced plans to tax farmers for their animal burps or farts to reduce emissions.