Climate Change Ruminations

By Samuel Fromartz

Added August 1, 2009.

In the past year there have been a lot of articles written focusing on green house gas emissions and the impact that cows are making on our environment by burping and defecating. NODPA published a few articles in the July NODPA News sharing what we feel is good information; highlighting the benefits organic management practices, high forage diets, the use of rotational grazing systems on production farms and the disadvantages of liquid manure storage systems. Read the following article contributions from Meredith Niles (Climate Policy for Agriculture that Works), Sam Fromartz (The Misguided Science Behind rBGH and Climate Change) and Troy Bishop (The Passing Wind) for some good science, policy, opinion and a chuckle.

The Misguided Science Behind rBGH And Climate Change
By Samuel Fromartz
Talk about intellectual pollution .... a recent study purports to show that genetically modified bovine growth hormone, or rBGH, cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions because it increases the efficiency of cows. Learn more >

The Passing Wind
By Troy Bishop
Researchers are busy trying to make the “Cow of the Future”, to solve our industry’s greenhouse gas emission problems. Talk about passing wind for any regenerative farming future. Humans are great aren’t they, let’s keep blaming the cows, feed them a myriad of feeds in confinement, tinker with their intestinal tracts and then justify to the consumer that this is sustainable. MORE >

Climate Policy for Agriculture that Works:
By Meredith Niles
Ensuring that America’s Organic Farmers are Part of the Solution MORE >