What looks like a huge public relations disaster for Arla, participating dairies and three supermarkets in the UK, could be the catalyst we need to clean up food in this country for good.
While Morissons, Tesco and Aldi brace for what is likely to be an extremely vocal reaction from shoppers, we look at what exactly Arla think they are doing.
Research on this additive for the dairy industry has been going on since at least 2005. Why did they make this announcement now?
The product in question is Bovaer®. The aim of the additive? To stop methane emissions - that is cow farts to you and me.
Climate Change enthusiasts will undoubtedly be delighted, but they probably won’t have a clue what the additive is designed to do inside the cow gut to prevent it farting. They also probably won’t have a clue why the cows farting is a problem. They also won’t know how we could actually stop cows farting so much by taking a very simple step.
In anaerobic digestion plants they are constantly trying to find ways of increasing methane, because methane is the gas that these plants use to create clean energy.
WHAT?
Yes you read that right. Methane is being used NOW around the world in anaerobic digestion plants to create power. The more methane, the more power.
Everyone in the climate change camp shouting about methane from cows must be getting their wires crossed, because they seem perfectly happy with digestion plants, as they are ‘environmentally friendly’.
So why don’t we just put the cows in a room with extractors to pull off the methane they fart out, and use that to power homes aswell? Simple solution right?
Clearly not. So why is cow methane such an issue?