In a bid to be green, you’ve sold the car, cancelled the holiday abroad and started composting. But all those changes may not be enough. It’s beef and dairy consumption, according to research, that is doing most damage to the planet, and the revelation is causing a row between environmentalists and the farming lobby.
As they burp or fart, cows produce methane, a harmful greenhouse gas; over 100 years, a tonne of methane will cause 23 times as much warming as a tonne of carbon dioxide, according to the Kyoto Protocol. By passing wind, farmed animals produce 18 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, topping the 13.5 per cent figure for the world’s transport systems. These figures challenge the view that emissions from cars and planes are the worst offenders in the fight against climate change.
‘A meat-eater who drives a hybrid car is doing more damage than a vegetarian driving a 4WD’
Some say the answer is simple: give up meat and milk. “If you are a meat-eater driving a hybrid car, you are doing more damage than if you are a vegetarian driving a 4WD,” says Caryn Hartglass, executive director of the environmental group EarthSave. “If everyone gave up meat and dairy tomorrow, we would see an improvement within a generation.”
Farming groups, however, are not amused. Vickie Rogers, assistant editor at Farmers Guardian, says: “We have always been a meat-eating nation and it’s irresponsible to advise people not to continue. Grazing cattle is also essential in rural life; would these people have an overgrown countryside instead? What about British agriculture?”
Farming groups realise the power of criticism from the environmental lobby. Today, people are highly aware of how lifestyle changes can make a difference to the environment. But farming is already a beleaguered sector. Fresh from the summer’s foot and mouth outbreak, and with BSE only a recent memory, farmers are struggling to cope with bad weather, rising fuel expenses and pressure to keep costs to a minimum.
“Cattle farming in Britain is already a declining business,” says Rogers. “I am not underestimating the impact of methane on the environment, I’m just saying we are very early on in the debate. We need more research.”
The National Farmers’ Union believes the nub of the issue is not cutting out beef, but controlling the levels of methane by, for example, changing the diets of livestock.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs commissioned a study to determine what causes cows to emit such quantities of methane. The concern is that cows’ digestive systems are inefficient and the grasses they eat can be difficult to digest.
A similar study in New Zealand has already shown that changing the composition of cows’ feed can reduce the methane produced by up to 50 per cent.
Some of those that profit from the sector are now seeing the importance of funding research. Ben & Jerry’s, which relies on dairy farming for the manufacture of its ice creams, is intending to become ‘climate neutral’ – by taking into account greenhouse gases other than CO2. And it is investing £1.63 million over the next five years to achieve this aim.
Anniek Mauser, a spokesman for the company, says: “We can’t stop cows doing what comes naturally, but we can work on methane-emission reduction by changing animal feed.”
Ben & Jerry’s expects others to follow its lead. For the sake of British farming – and for our steak and kidney pies – let’s hope they do.