To be honest, this little story is more about burps than farts. Farts are more amusing. It is about the ability of both milk and beef cattle to produce large quantities of methane gas. It has something to do with their complex stomachs that can digest things that a human stomach cannot. It causes them to burp and fart a lot. And since the State of Wisconsin in the United States claims to have more cows than all of Canada, we will point the finger at the Americans. They have got to do something about those burping, farting, methane producing creatures.
It is absolutely serious when you consider that, world-wide, milk and beef cattle are responsible for about ten per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions. I suppose most of us will indulge the environmentalists by eventually switching to electric automobiles but I will be damned if I am going to give up on good steaks and hamburgers. I have already given up drinking milk with lactose, in hopes of lessening my own production of methane.
I hear the Australians have found that feeding their cows some special seaweed can help solve the problem. I am waiting to hear about the milk from cows fed a diet with seaweed. My own experiences with seaweeds have been to label them as inedible. No doubt scientists will eventually find the magic ingredient in the seaweed and put the magic ingredient in small capsules. Seniors everywhere will certainly thank them. Whether cows can swallow capsules is another matter.
The problem is though that the world’s taste for beef has also been growing. It is reported that in the world-wide increase in greenhouse gases, cattle are responsible for nine per cent of the of the increase in gases, at a time when we are trying to reduce the problem.
I guess Babel-on-the-Bay will have to follow up further on all this free-form farting at another time.
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