Every time you blame cows for climate change, an oil executive laughs
Eurof Uppington
Given the press, you’d be forgiven for thinking that reducing cattle numbers and moving to a plantbased diet is a climate solution up there with electric vehicles and o shore wind.
Billions of dollars and euros and celebrity endorsements have been invested in plant-based and alternative protein startups. “Cows create global warming” is a truism of our time, shared by almost all right-thinking people.
The emerging truth appears di erent. Not only is the climate impact of cattle confused and overblown - properly managed, grazing cows and sheep can be a climate and biodiversity solution.
Meanwhile, the controversy takes attention away from real priorities: cutting dependence on fossil fuels and xing farming to restore our landscapes and countryside.
The charge sheet: ruminants like cows and sheep burp methane, a gas 30 times more "greenhousey" than CO2.
The Amazon rainforest is being denuded for beef. A hamburger uses almost 3 tonnes of water.
The opportunity cost of the vast tracts of land used for pasture, or growing fodder is too high; it could be used to grow food for humans instead, or even better, rewilded, sequestering gigatons of carbon. Write in if I missed any.
The methane was already there
To understand the warming impact of ruminants we need to distinguish methane stocks (the amount in the atmosphere) versus ows (movements in and out of the atmosphere). Cow and sheep burps are part of a cyclical ow.
The methane, or CH4, comes from fermenting grass and cellulose in their rumen. The carbon, or C in the CH4, came from the plants they ate, which in turn came from atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis.
Once out there, the CH4 eventually breaks down into CO2 again, ready to be photosynthesised.
True, methane does take 10 years to degrade, during which time it has a big heating impact. But if the stock doesn’t change, it doesn’t contribute to warming.
It’s not clear that this is a net emission at all. If it is, it doesn’t much move the needle: according to the US EPA, enteric fermentation is only 2% of annual domestic GHG emissions.
True, methane does take 10 years to degrade, during which time it has a big heating impact. But if the stock doesn’t change, it doesn’t contribute to warming.
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It would if the number of cows and sheep on the planet had massively increased in the past 20 years or so; instead, it’s climbed very gently.
The number of chickens over that time, on the other hand, has exploded.
It's soy, not beef
Which brings us to the Amazon. The real reason the rainforest has been cut down is for soy, not beef.
Since 1990, acreage in Brazil for soy has grown fourfold. Land area for pasture has actually declined. This makes sense, as an acre of soy is much more profitable than an acre of pasture.
Soy is a dual-use crop, providing vegetable oil for humans, with the remainder used to feed pigs and chickens.
Both oil and chickenfeed have been big growth markets over the past 30 years as Western diets have changed. Beef consumption is at to down.
Feedlots are nasty and horrible, and are prevalent mostly in the US, where cattle are fattened on corn and alfalfa for the last third of their lives. But many other countries (like Switzerland or the UK) don’t use feedlots.
The water use argument is nonsense. Cattle get their water from pasture, which is wet because it’s rained on.
The rain falls anyway. Cattle don’t take water resources from other users unless they’re eating fodder in a feedlot.
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Feedlots are nasty and horrible, and are prevalent mostly in the US, where cattle are fattened on corn and alfalfa for the last third of their lives. This can use lots of water, mostly for growing fodder. But many other countries (like Switzerland or the UK) don’t use feedlots.
Rumen is a feature, not a bug
The last charge against ruminants is that they take up land that could be put to better use.
This is a more complex argument, but equally specious - land