Cows Are the Cause?

By: Justin Taylor

Let’s start with some background into this issue. Everyone should be aware that one of the main causes of Global Warming is the increase of methane into the atmosphere. So here we are left with the question as to how is there so much of this getting into the atmosphere? Some other common causes of global warming are emissions from cars, energy used by people, and some forestry practices. There have been various studies to show that livestock produce a large amount of the greenhouse gasses that are being put into the atmosphere. According to Matt Blitz of Gizmodo.com, of all of the ruminants, more commonly known as livestock, cows tend to produce more methane gas. “Due to the sheer number of cows on the planet, along with the large size per cow, our tasty friends produce more methane gas than all other ruminants combined.” Judging from this article it seems to be pretty cut and dry as to who (or what I suppose) is the largest producer of methane in the ruminants-the cows. So what do you think is the greatest producer of greenhouse gasses?

Through some more research we will be showing if cows produce the most amount of methane of the ruminants, as well as exploring some possibilities for solutions to the issue of methane production in livestock across the world.

            So let’s get into this now. According to timeforchange.org, they say that “a cow does on average release between 70 and 120 kg of methane per year.” In a study done by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, summarized by the NPR, “the bulk of emissions- 55 percent- came from beef cattle. [talking about emissions from livestock] Dairy cows, buffalo, sheep and goats accounted for the rest.” So by this article we now know that the large part of emissions is caused from beef cattle. So what might this mean? Something that we can conclude from this is that cows are actually the leading cause for the production of methane in livestock. So now that that is proven let’s talk about the consequences for this. According to the GHG  the cause for this much emission is from humans. It is due to the increase of meat that is needed to continually feed people eating from fast food restaurants and such. Because of this need for meat, the number of livestock needed to keep up with it has gone up, causing this increase in greenhouse gasses produced by cows and other livestock. A study done by the EPA https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/us-greenhouse-gas-inventory-report-1990-2014 in finding the sources of greenhouse gasses showed that only 9% of all greenhouse gas emissions was caused by agriculture.

Overview of Greenhouse Gases 1 picture

  Tying this back to the main question, are cows the cause of the increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere? Simply yes, but it is the humans who caused the need, so, in a sense, it is us who should find a way to fix this issue. Some ways to solve this have been proposed.  

Some solutions that have been proposed are a more methane suppressant diet for cows, so as to produce less methane while digesting. That would include a higher garlic diet, due to the fact that garlic is a natural methane suppressant. Some other solutions proposed by the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Increase the percentage of Legumes in forage mixtures, Avoid the use of low-quality, mature pasture crops for grazing, breed better pasture species to improve nutritional quality, plant birdsfood trefoil.” The Birdsfoot trefoil is similar to garlic in that it produces tannins which reduce emissions and risk of disease, therefore keeping the cows healthy, as well as helping to keep the world cleaner. These are just some of the ways that could help to bring down the release of methane in beef cattle.

In conclusion, we can see that the original article is actually telling the truth. We can see in livestock specifically that cows are the leading cause of methane release. From our sources we can see that beef cattle cause 55%, plus dairy cows which was not specified. We also explored some of the causes for this increase as well as some solutions that have been put in place. So now you know some of the causes for global warming as well as some of the solutions that could help to bring down the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.