Sometimes, you really don’t need to make up an April Fools joke. Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction, except for the part about “four gallons” which is part of the original Telegraph article 😉 – Anthony
From the Telegraph UK, by Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Fish oils reduce greenhouse emissions from ‘flatulent cows’
Cows which are fed omega 3 fatty acids belch out less greenhouse gases that cause climate change, according to scientists.
Cattle produce large amounts of methane as they digest their food and then belch out most of it through their mouths.
A herd of 200 cows can produce annual emissions of methane roughly equivalent in energy terms to driving a family car more than 100,000 miles (180,000km) on more than four gallons (21,400 litres) of petrol.
The omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oils can also help the heart and circulatory system and improve meat quality.
Speaking at the Society for General Microbiology meeting in Harrogate, Dr Lorraine Lillis, one of the researchers, said the study could help the agriculture industry cut emissions.
She said: “The fish oil affects the methane-producing bacteria in the rumen part of the cow’s gut, leading to reduced emissions.
“Understanding which microbial species are particularly influenced by changes in diet and relating them to methane production could bring about a more targeted approach to reducing methane emissions in animals.”
The UK is committed to cutting greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050.
More than a third of all methane emissions in the UK is produced by farm animals. By volume, methane is 20 times more powerful at trapping solar energy than carbon dioxide making it a potent greenhouse gas.
Jonathan Scurlock, an adviser at the National Farmers Union, said farmers were willing to modify feed in order to reduce emissions but at the moment there are few affordable options on the market and he encouraged more research into the area.
It looks as though it’s our turn in the UK to be reminded of the FACTS behind AGW. We are being treated to a prime time re run of Al Gores horror flick “An inconvenient truth” this weekend on CH4.
The Christian Science Monitor has a sense of humor, see
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/04/01/scientists-worldwide-admit-global-warming-is-a-hoax/
n an unprecedented move Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rescinded the Peace Prize it awarded in 2007 to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, amid overwhelming evidence that global warming is an elaborate hoax cooked up by Mr. Gore.
…
The only major scientific body not to sign the statement was the Royal Society of Canada, whose country has been brought to a standstill by a massive infestation of polar bears.
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
Coming soon to a grocery store in your area – a “cow tax”? Since C02 is now deemed a “pollutant” by the EPA, why wouldn’t methane also be considered one?
“Johnny, drink your milk”. No, because cows are killing the Polar Bears, and making the earth catch on fire”. “Where did you get that?” At school – the teacher said so.
Even though “flatulent cows” is in quotations in the Telegraph UK headline, and they do state in the article that the bulk of the methane released is belched out, I think they do science a misservice by continuing the myth that it is “cow flatulence” or “cow farts” that releases the majority of the methane. This ties in nicely with the further myth that methane has a bad smell to it, when in fact methane, like C02 is completely colorless and odorless.
Methane of course, is getting the same bad and completely erroneous rap that C02 is getting from the CAGW rent-seeking fraudsters and fellow bandwagoners.
When will the insanity stop?
There are a lot of comments here already, so forgive me if it’s been mentioned already.
The addition of fish oil in the diet may not be necessary to ease cow flatulence. It’s a proven fact that DHA (the essential nutrient in fish oil) can be provided to a bovine’s diet by simply feeding it…. grass. Yes, the foodstuff that cows are evolved to eat will provide the required amount of DHA.
Grass-fed cows have been shown to produce milk with higher concentrations of DHA–I plan on feeding my kids grass-fed cow’s milk when they’re young, in case they’re not big fans of fish.
I hope my wife doesn’t hear about this. She’ll be putting that stuff into everything I eat! And claiming it’s for the environment! Hoo-boy…..
The best part is that cows (and chickens and goats, etc) used to naturally get Omega fatty 3s from eating dark leafy greens. Gotta have that grain fed, genetically modified, freaky franken-beef though I guess. Sure, give ’em fish oil, never mind the greens! And charge people extra for the eggs/meat with Omega 3s, since they don’t know we took it out in the first place!
Trust them, they know stuff. 🙂
Sarah: “freaky franken-beef”. It is real! I am sure you have never eaten fishmeal fed chicken meat…it tastes and smells like tuna.
@Sarah
Keep in mind that grass-fed animal products are not the same as organic food products. Depending on what it is (milk or eggs), it can be cheaper or more expensive than the organic counterpart.
Good luck in getting your hands on raw milk straight from a grass-fed cow though–the government has mostly banned it. For your own good, of course.
You can also save money by buying regular (i.e. grain-fed) milk and eggs and just buying fish oil supplements.
Good thing that we killed off all those buffalo, now isn’t it?
Louise Gray seems to have been granted carte blanche to write alarmist articles almost everyday recently. Makes a change to see an article, where she isn’t – well… perhaps there is an assumption.
Researchers from University College Dublin found however, by adding two per cent of fish oil to the animal’s feed the amount of methane is reduced by around a fifth.
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How much reduction in the amount of methane produced by the addition of two per cent of AlGore snake-oil to the animal’s feed?
The UK is committed to cutting greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050.
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My immediate question is how many greenhouses are there in the UK?
All of the greenhouse gases can be eliminated by eliminating all greenhouses. Problem solved.
Is there a difference in the gases in a greenhouse and the gases in the atmosphere? No, with the exception of the slightly decreased carbon dioxide in the greenhouse due to the greedy appetites of green plants gorging themselves on all available carbon dioxide.
A recent experiment on the propagation of plants in extra-terrestrial environments has shown that the plants in the small experimental container exhausted the available carbon dioxide in a few minutes. Space travelers would have to hyperventilate to keep the plants alive.
I am aware that carbon dioxide and other trace atmospheric gases are supposed to be enclosing the Earth in a heat retaining blanket equivalent to a greenhouse enclosure, but this is an erroneous assumption. The missing elements are convection and the very low specific heat capacity of carbon dioxide.
By allowing the Algores to divert the argument and determine the language is to capitulate in the argument.
To all,
I have often wondered just how much methane the American Bison herds placed into the atmosphere before they were all slaughtered in the late 19th century.
Didn’t those millions of animals exist during the little Ice Age, around 1850? How could the world have grown colder, as the LIA shows, while all those bison were running around, doing what bison do and happily putting forth methane?
@Stan Erickson Bill (19:24:31) :
Apologies, I had not read your post when I wrote mine above. Well-said!
Funnily enough, there actually was an April Fool’s Day hoax in the Telegraph, written by the very same Louise Gray. It was about generating power from – you guessed it – fish. It was printed on April 1st, and the Telegraph editorial referred to ‘fishy’ stories.
One thing did strike me, though. Compared to the lunacy of wind power, this idea is eminently sane and practical.
If only the whole AGW delusion were no more than a harmless April Fool’s joke….
Chris
“earth-destroying cow-dragons”
LOL! I wondered about the buffalo, too…
Earth’s atmosphere seems to be able to take a lot of punishment from the inhabitants, which is perhaps another Inconvenient Truth.