{"id":28231,"date":"2016-08-16T15:22:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T19:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=28231"},"modified":"2016-08-16T15:22:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T19:22:18","slug":"cows-and-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cows-and-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"La Vache Qui P\u00eate: Cows and Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many, the words \u201cclimate change\u201d bring to mind black clouds rising from factory smokestacks, buses idling at streetlights, and oil spills sticking in fishes\u2019 gills. Man-made pollutants, though, are far from the only influence on the health of the environment. Another big culprit is—to put it oh-so-delicately—the gas and waste of cows. Yep—mainly belches and manure, but cow flatulence<\/a>, too. Now that that\u2019s out in the open\u2026<\/p>\n

Methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning that it traps heat in the earth\u2019s atmosphere—an effect that causes, among other things, a rise in the average temperature of the planet. California legislators, in response to cows\u2019 role in climate change, are pushing for further regulation of the dairy industry, seeking to cut methane emissions. Dairy farmers aren\u2019t thrilled at the prospect of this tall order.<\/p>\n

The CEO of Western United Dairymen, Anja Raudabaugh, explains<\/a> that the problem is not just overregulation—it is also a matter of bovine biology. \u201cBy nature\u2019s design,\u201d she says, \u201c[cows] pass lots of gas\u2026 Quite frankly, we want them to expel gas so they don\u2019t explode.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California Air Resources Board has a few suggestions in mind: To take hold of the root of the problem, they could require different feeding practices or changes in breeding to naturally limit the gas cows need to expel. Or they could regulate the back end of the operation, asking farmers to invest in anaerobic digesters rather than storing manure in lagoons.<\/p>\n

Anaerobic digesters, using an oxygen-less environment, convert manure\u2019s volatile acids into biogas that can be burned to generate heat and electricity, allowing for a reduction of odor and the production of renewable energy in addition to just cutting emissions.<\/p>\n

Some larger farms have already implemented anaerobic digesters with great results. Crave Brothers<\/a> in Wisconsin uses<\/a> energy produced by a digester to power the farm, and enough electricity is left over to power 300 homes in the area—which is a whole lot! Digesters are also a costly investment, though, and legally requiring them could put some smaller farms out of business.<\/p>\n

At present, the initial cost of implementing<\/a> a digester system ranges from $1000 to $2000 per cow—a hefty sum for a small farm with limited output—and maintaining the system adds to that total. While using the energy produced for heating can save money down the line, the burden of capital cost is, at this point, too much for many small farms to take on. Reducing emissions is, of course, a noble goal, but many dairy farmers object to such a heavy regulatory hand. Before implementing such a requirement, many feel, more research should go into finding a financially viable<\/a> way to use digesters on farms with smaller herds and yields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gassy cows aren’t just problematic for those standing downwind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":28232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[875],"class_list":["post-28231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-bites"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLa Vache Qui P\u00eate: Cows and Climate Change - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cows-and-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"La Vache Qui P\u00eate: Cows and Climate Change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gassy cows aren't just problematic for those standing downwind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cows-and-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-16T19:22:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/16633462824_89374f3cf1_k.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Caroline Fenn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Caroline Fenn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cows-and-climate-change\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cows-and-climate-change\/\",\"name\":\"La Vache Qui P\u00eate: Cows and Climate Change - 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