Dairy farms — and other livestock operations — can be leaders in the battle against climate change. Farmers have always been conservationists. Farmers take care of their land, in part because they rely on the land. Livestock farms are no different. Methane gas has been in the headlines lately, and for good reason. Methane, along with carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, are the three main greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Anti-livestock media focuses on dairies and CFOs as being emitters of GHGs, but ignores the details. Methane is a powerful GHG, but it behaves differently than CO2, the main GHG from fossil fuels. According to a recent white paper by Dr. Frank Mitloehner, Dr. Ermias Kebreab, and Michael Boccadoro:
Methane is a short-lived climate pollutant and exists in our atmosphere for 12 years before it’s broken down. This means, when a constant rate of methane is emitted for more than 12 years, one molecule in effect replaces a previously emitted molecule that has since been removed. In other words, methane isn’t accumulating in the atmosphere.
Methane is different than CO2 because CO2 stays in our atmosphere for centuries and accumulates over time. Methane breaks down within about 12 years. As farms take climate-friendly steps (cover cropping, no-till, feed additives, modern genetics, increased efficiencies, digesters, etc.), they stabilize methane emissions, which produces a “negative warming” effect—aka actually cooling the atmosphere. Dairy farms, for example, produce less methane than they did in the past, meaning more methane is being broken down than is being emitted into the atmosphere.
I recently attended a wonderful presentation by Mitloehner at the Indiana Dairy Producers Forum, and this approach made a lot of sense to me. He provided the following graphic to explain how CO2 (carbon dioxide) stays in the atmosphere while CH4 (methane) is destroyed at roughly the same rate it is emitted:
Chart Credit: UC Davis Department of Animal Sciences, Clarifty and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research.
The point is that even a slight reduction in methane will create a cooling effect. The same cannot be said for CO2. This means livestock farms — especially dairies — have a real opportunity to be the leaders in the movement toward climate neutrality. Media and anti-livestock groups should not be allowed to tell the story of animal agriculture. We have a great story to share.
Editor’s Note: Brianna J. Schroeder grew up on a family farm in northeastern Indiana. Her legal practice, Janzen Schroeder Ag Law, focuses on farmers and agribusinesses. Schroeder has litigated complex environmental and agricultural matters, including insurance coverage, regulatory compliance, tort claims, zoning appeals, and employment claims. She also negotiates and drafts contracts for agricultural companies and farms, including solar leases and employment agreements. Schroeder is licensed in Indiana and Illinois and has represented a wide variety of clients from start-up companies and livestock farmers to large agricultural businesses, trade groups, and municipalities.
Back in January, COGECA organised a business forum dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) in the agri-food system. It was a great opportunity to discuss many exciting challenges and to draw the contours of an “agriculture 4.0” which, like the concept of web 3.0 or 4.0, is rooted in the sharing of dat
Statement from the British Veterinary Association: The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has welcomed the announcement from Trade Secretary Liz Truss that a new Trade and Agriculture Commission will be established. The advisory Commission will consider the policies that the UK Government should ado
I have a black and white photo of a tornado sitting on a cabinet in my house. It always used to hang on the wall in my grandparent’s house, and now that they are gone, it reminds me of them. But the picture also reminds me of the awesome and terrible power of those tornadoes. Our family farm had a tornado near-miss back in the early 1990s, many years before we moved out here. The tornado struck our neighbor’s farm, just across the road, and took their barn and house. I often thi
Back in the mid 1990s, during a visit to my hometown, I stopped by the Sioux Falls Brewery to try their beers. As a home brewer, I was keen to glean any information about their beers and brewing process that I could. However, something else on their menu caught my eye – the burgers. The brewery’s burgers were made of beef from a local farm, and the cattle were fed spent grains donated to the farm from the brewery. What a great idea, I thought. The brewery doesn’t have to pay