Meat is Methane

Methane is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and ruminant livestock like sheeps and cows are huge emitters. It's pretty sobering to think that the methane output of New Zealand accounts for half of their greenhouse gas emissions (though it's understandable, when you think about their sheep:human ratio).

Anyway, methane is bad stuff when let into the atmosphere and the global emission is not only rising, it's accelerating. There's quite a few factors blamed for this, including melting permafrost in Siberia and increasing demand for meat. Well, it's increasing in developing countries but it's always been high in the West, with all those extra cows and sheep burping (not farting, apparently) extra methane in the air. Also the issue of energy efficiency - more energy can be extracted per hectare from crops than from animals. I've heard of schemes to get round this such as trapping the methane as it's emitted by strapping apparatus over the animal's face. I bet it's a really funny sight, but how practical is it, really? I've also been told about a way to kill the bacteria in ruminants' guts that create the gases. Sounds promising, but I can only imagine it has an adverse effect on the animal - which would be a rather large economical stumbling block. The latest I heard of was switching to kangaroo meat. I guess they're successful in partially arid conditions - good news for agriculture, slightly less good news for the kangaroos. Rice fields are huge methane emitters too, though I think finding a suitable alternative staple crop for most of Asia could prove somewhat taxing, lol.

I envision a bleak solution; enclosed sheds packed with cows, and the exhaust air is passed through a filter that extracts the methane, which can then be added to the output from the biogas generator (fed by cow poo). I don't know how you'd filter it though, and this would be pretty intensive, with the disease implications that brings. Not nice.

I'm not saying we should all become vegan, there will always be animals reared as some environments aren't suitable for growing crops, and we need some animal nutrition and products (e.g. milk, eggs, wool, leather), but in the face of the oncoming food crisis we would surely be better off eating far less carcass.

Something to think about next time you're chomping into a Big Mac.