To really fight global warming, just change how cows are made!  I kid you not.  From the Gannett papers today:

Dairy cow of future may pass less gas

The Associated Press • April 14, 2009

The U.S. dairy industry wants to engineer the “cow of the future” to pass less gas, a project aimed at cutting the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, industry leaders said Monday.

The cow project aims to reduce intestinal methane, the single largest component of the dairy industry’s carbon footprint, said Thomas P. Gallagher, chief executive officer of the U.S. Dairy and Dairy Management Inc.’s Innovation Center in Rosemont, Ill.

The project involves adopting innovative practices and technologies One area to be explored is modifying the dairy cows’ feed so they produce less methane, said Rick Naczi, the leader of the initiative.

“Right now there is some work being done on fish-oil additives and some other things,” he said in a telephone interview from Rosemont. “The cow is responsible for the majority of the greenhouse gas on the farm itself. We know there are ways that we can find to cut or reduce that production.”

Another possible solution is targeting the microbes in the cow’s gut, Naczi said. “You can change the mix of the bacteria in the cow’s rumen and change the methane production that way.”

He expects the research to develop some solutions within a year.

The initiative could have a huge effect in Wisconsin. The state has about 1.25 million dairy cows, or about 14 percent of the national total.

0 comments so far...