Environmentalists have long targeted the beef industry because of the adverse effect that raising cows and producing meat and dairy products has on the environment.
Allegedly, it hastens global warming because of the greenhouse gases that it produces. Environmentalists have advocated for using products that do not involve the beef industry, like drinking milk from alternative sources, such as almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, and other types.
Moreover, they also found other ways of reducing greenhouse gases that cows produce by feeding cows seaweeds that potentially reduced methane by around 86%.
But in the past years, a relatively small but growing body of research suggests that pastured cows and other livestock might help fight against climate change because it helps sequester greenhouse gases to well-managed grasslands.
Cows Produce Greenhouse Gases
The vast majority of cows in the US are fed with corn and grains that hastens their fattening to be slaughtered at the earliest rather than traditional methods.
This is widely criticized by environmentalists because it destroys the ecology due to their heavy carbon footprints that rely on using chemically fertilized cattle feed and the large amounts of methane that cows produce from their burps and flatulence.
An article in Washington Post said that "science says beef should be on the chopping block" because they play a significant role in greenhouse gas emissions.
While an article published in the Atlantic said that cows are the "main, mooing offender" that drives greenhouse gas emissions.
Growing Presence of Pastured Livestock in the Market
Just the News reported that some eco-activists pointed out that a small part of the beef industry could be the answer to the conundrum of the cow's carbon footprint. Pastured beef or those cows raised on grasslands from birth to slaughter only produces a small amount of carbon.
A 2017 estimate from Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture suggests that it only comprises 4% of the total beef sales in the country, and its scarcity has made it expensive and kept it from gaining much attention from the American meat economy.
But the growing pastured beef farmers' markets in the past decade has led to a steady rise in its presence with major corporations seeking to capitalize on the niche market.
ALSO READ : Cow Seaweed Diet Sees 86% Less Methane in Trials
Pastured Livestock Might Help Fight Against Climate Change
A 2018 study by researchers in Michigan and Washington, D.C., entitled "Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems," showed that intensive, rotational grazing could offset greenhouse gas emission through carbon sequestration that will result to a carbon sink.
The researchers noted that grasslands could become highly efficient carbon sequesters that can be maximized using management practices for livestock grazing.
Another study published in December, entitled "Ecosystem Impacts and Productive Capacity of a Multi-Species Pastured Livestock System," noted that feedlot cows gain weight in less time, so it produces fewer carbon emissions over their lifespan.
But carbon sequestration of livestock could ultimately reduce the carbon footprint of pasteurized cows by 80% and finished with 66% lesser than the feedlot production.
The two studies also pointed out the downside of producing pasteurized livestock. They revealed that pastured farms require more land to produce beef compared to feedlot systems.
However, a study led by the Food Climate Research Network in 2017, entitled "Grazed and confused?" argued that the potential offsets of pastured farms only affect 0.6%-1.6% of the yearly carbon emissions.
Regardless of the benefits and downsides of pasteurized livestock, their hefty price pose an insurmountable deterrent for many consumers.
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