Part 2: Reducing methane brings opportunity

Is it worth farmers’ time and money to work toward reducing methane emissions? Dr. Frank Mitloehner, professor and air quality Extension specialist at UC-Davis and director of the CLEAR Center, collaborates with the animal ag sector to answer questions such as this.

When the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2 and methane increase, warming also increases. Mitloehner explained what happens when CO2 from a power plant and methane from a cattle herd are reduced.

“The power plant is cleaner over time,” said Mitloehner. “It produces less power to achieve net zero. They turn it off and replace it with alternative energy. Reducing CO2 over time leads to the warming effect – even though we are reducing CO2, the warming from reducing CO2 still goes up all the way to the point of turning off the power plant. Then the warming plateaus … You have to turn it off for warming to stop increasing.”

Reducing methane over time instantaneously reduces warming. “That is the real opportunity for us in animal agriculture,” said Mitloehner. “Methane is our main greenhouse gas. If we learn to reduce this gas, we have the effect of warming going down and we will be part of the solution by reducing methane.”

He continued, “Even though we are reducing CO2 over time, we still see an increase in warming. When we learn how to reduce methane, something that can be a problem becomes a solution.”

Methane is the main GHG in animal agriculture, setting the industry apart from all others.

While methane is produced around the world from animal belching and manure, Mitloehner said production isn’t as high as activists try to make the public believe and isn’t the driving issue which, without addressing, would lead to climate disaster.

The species that contribute most to methane emissions are ruminants, particularly cattle, via enteric fermentation (belching). Pigs and chickens produce very little methane. Some people believe reducing consumption of animal source foods will reduce GHGs, but Mitloehner disagrees.

“There’s a pipe dream in media that all we need to do is change what we eat and that will affect the climate impact of our food choices,” he said.

Mitloehner pointed out that while the U.S. population is fairly stable, populations in Africa and Asia are rising due to increasing life expectancy. Elderly populations require more protein, so animal source foods will play an important role in the future.

In discussing the 2050 Challenge, which is when the world population is expected to reach 10 billion, Mitloehner said the true challenge will be to provide sufficient protein for a growing population.

“That means we have to do a much better job producing food in the future than in the past,” he said. “We’ll need a toolbox approach. We have to become more efficient and use all natural resources, particularly those that aren’t suitable for crop production like marginal lands. If we don’t use these resources, we will fail in addressing the 2050 Challenge of feeding people in the future.”

One issue of the challenge is the limited amount of land in the world. Mitloehner said cropland, or arable land, makes up one-third of all agricultural land. The remaining two-thirds of all ag land is marginal land and can only be used for raising ruminant livestock because grass is all that grows on it.

“Grass contains cellulose, and the only animals that can digest cellulose are ruminant livestock,” said Mitloehner. “It’s true when our special friends [activists] say the majority of agricultural land is used for livestock. But what they conveniently leave out is that if it weren’t for ruminant livestock, that land couldn’t be used for human food production. We need marginal lands to feed a growing human population, and we need technologies and techniques.”

How will agriculture reduce emissions and increase productivity? Mitloehner said the solution that won’t work is the one activists say we should engage in – change what we eat and move from an omnivorous diet to a plant-based diet.

“Activists haven’t been successful in reducing animal source food consumption,” said Mitloehner. “In 98% of all U.S. refrigerators today, there will be animal-source foods.”

In developing countries, consumption of animal sourced foods is on the rise. When people in these countries have more disposable income, they feed their families more protein.

However, the general media is full of articles on how humans, particularly in developed countries, should eat less meat in order to reduce the footprint of food. Just prior to the last International Climate Conference, media outlets said the UN will release a report suggesting everyone should stop eating animal source foods and move to a plant-based diet.

Mitloehner said the take-home message is that we need a variety of tools to reduce emissions, including productivity increases, selective breeding and improved animal health.

Part 1 defines what the issues with methane are, as explained by Dr. Mitloehner.

Part 3 explains how farmers can reduce emissions without breaking the bank.

by Sally Colby