I just read that, in September 2016, the Governor of California signed a bill regulating greenhouse gas emissions related to dairy farming. He's talking about methane ... cow farts.
The State is giving money to help some of the dairy farmers buy "digesters" which convert methane from manure into energy that can be sold back to the utility companies. Dairy farmers aren't too happy about all this as there's not enough money to provide the technology to everyone, but they will still be required to reduce the amount of manure produced. The best way to do that, apparently, is to give the cows more expensive food ... better quality in, better quality out, I suppose.
I agree that the idea of reducing greenhouse gases is a good one, but surely this Bill will have so many unintended consequences, the least of which is price rises and job losses. It's predicted that farmers will just sell up in California, and start farming in other States, which really doesn't help the initial problem ... the cows will still fart and poop, whether they're in California or Wisconsin, thereby making absolutely no difference to the climate (unless you're downwind, of course!).
A year or so ago, scientists in Argentina figured out that this particular cow byproduct can be useful to be converted to energy, and have invented a backpack to collect the ... er ... gas. A tube is stuck in the cow's rumen and the gas is then stored in the inflatable bag. The methane gas goes through various processes to make it suitable to use as electricity, and thereby keeping it out of the atmosphere. This is all in the R and D stage, and there are definitely some ethics questions arising too, but it's one solution to the problem of what to do with the south bound end of a north bound cow.
I'm not sure if this is just putting a band-aid on the problem, rather than solving it. Is the solution to eat less meat? I'm sure that comes with its own set of problems regarding land needed for cultivation of crops, and the vast amounts of water and chemicals used by the agricultural industry. I think we should all go back to having a kitchen garden, or the apartment equivalent, and more community gardens .. although that brings it's own problems too. There is a local garden near where I live and I noticed that people were mainly growing flowers. I found out that they don't grow many veggies because people come in overnight and steal the vegetables. Do you put a high fence and locked gate around the gardens? Should we be pleased that thieves are getting their five-a-day? There are so many solutions to the original problem, but each brings with it a new set of problems. A debate for another day!
Photo courtesy of Ecouterre at ecouterre.com
