Cows and Climate
Food Chain Radio Show #1181
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Cows and Climate
Guest: Frank Mitloehner, Professor of Animal Science University of California, Davis
Having been raised under the Big Skies of Montana, I came to know the cow as the animal that converts unusable grass into usable food. And of course, I ate that food.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Cows and Climate Change?
But now I am being told not to eat that food because the cow is destroying the climate. And furthermore, I must stop eating that food right away, because the climate is rapidly deteriorating and the earth only has twelve years left!
Who is telling me to stop eating food from the cow? I hear environmental scientists fighting to stay on the cutting edge of the politically correct; politicians running for office; movie stars keeping their brand in the news; vegans wanting everyone to eat soybeans; and, of course, animal rights activists wanting humans to relinquish all thoughts of taking dominion over the animal kingdom.
Many of the naysayers point to the 2006 United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization report that claims cows emit more greenhouse gas than cars, trucks, trains and planes. And they point to a Danish study that claims the average cow produces enough methane per year to do the same greenhouse damage as four tons of carbon dioxide.
And furthermore, they tell us, to feed all those 1.5 billion cows grazing across the surface of the earth, we need to create more grasslands, and that means chopping down more forests, which only increases the adverse effects of all those cud-chewing critters passing their gas.
Before this poor omnivore goes meatless on Monday, he asks someone who just might know…
Leave a comment below: Are cows killing the climate?
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What about their manure being used as fertilizer in the 3rd world??