Do cows pollute?

There are many natural processes produced in the environment that emit greenhouse gases , for example, volcanic eruptions are a geological process that emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The same happens with flatulence in cows , they emit methane as a result of enteric fermentation carried out by bacteria on the food ingested by the animal in the digestion process. Although these animals emit methane , it would not be fair to link the methane from cows and climate change , since cows themselves are not really a great source of pollution for it. It is the intensive meat industryresponsible for these polluting emissions and all those related to its processes. A cow emits between 70 and 120 kilos of methane per year, if the demand and production of meat increases, the number of existing cows continues to increase and as a consequence the methane emissions. In addition, the feeding system of the cows makes them have a slow digestion and, therefore, they end up emitting more methane.

Gas emissions from cows are not the only culprits of livestock pollution , but all those that come from the different phases that involve the meat industry: from the raising of the cows until the red meat reaches a consumer. The phases of the meat industry cause other types of contamination and threats to the environment, such as contamination and deterioration of the soil , water contamination or the loss of biodiversity .

Rather than wonder how much cows pollute, we should ask ourselves how much the livestock sector pollutes . Currently, it is known that this is responsible for 14.5% of greenhouse effect emissions , being more polluting than the transport sector. The livestock sector also has needs of millions of liters of water for its processes and, according to the FAO, livestock uses 30% of the land surface and occupies 33% of the entire arable area to produce forage.

Pollution in the livestock sector is on the rise, as is the population: more and more meat is produced to meet demand.

Next, it will be shown as an example how much 1 kg of meat contaminates , in order to be aware of the problems that the meat industry poses for the environment. It is estimated that, for the production of one kilogram of beef, intensive livestock farming requires an average of about 20,000 liters of water and generates about 27 kg of CO2 .

In nature, both abiotic and biotic factors can be found, among them there is a synergy that allows all the fundamental processes to occur for life on Earth to occur. As we have already mentioned, the emission of methane through the flatulence of cows is just one more process that occurs naturally after the animal’s digestion process. Methane, if it is found in optimal amounts in the atmosphere, is not harmful to it, the problem is when the emissions of this gas increase and are excessive. If methane emissions have increased, it is due to the intervention of man who, with his activities, including intensive livestock and extensive livestock farming , has caused an increase in greenhouse gases, as well as soil and water pollution and the threat to biodiversity.

In short, it is the human being the animal that most pollutes the environment since it is the only one that has made an intense intervention on nature to improve its quality of life. Although all these anthropic activities in the short term are generating a comfortable life for part of the world’s population, in the long term they are causing natural resources to deteriorate and pollute. Not all anthropic activities have the same impact or are equally polluting, but some examples of human activities that pollute are: deforestation, intensive agriculture and livestock, building in natural areas, abusive consumption of water and mining exploitation, among others.

Here you can learn more about the causes of the greenhouse effect, its consequences and solutions .

The most extreme solution would be to say stop eating meat , since eating meat contaminates. It does not contaminate the mere fact of eating, but the entire process of its production, but in the end this contamination is also the responsibility of the consumer. This extreme measure could be applied to any product that we consume in excess and that is produced on a large scale, since all this entails high contamination. However, we can choose to eliminate the consumption of meat and reduce or regulate our consumption of other products, adjusting to what we really need, without exceeding ourselves, or there are other options that can be part of the solutions for the contamination of the meat industry and without totally renouncing the consumption of meat:

• Reduce our consumption of meat, because we do not need to consume it daily, much less.
• Reject macro farms and support small producers.
• Promote the consumption of local and organic meat.
• Promote good agricultural and livestock practices without exploiting the land.
• Use of efficient technologies in all phases of the production of meat and dairy products. That is, from livestock until the meat and other products obtained from cattle are packaged.

In this video you can learn more about the topic of cow contamination. We also recommend reading this other article on How to reduce greenhouse gases .

If you want to read more articles similar to Do cows pollute? , we recommend that you enter our Pollution category .