Cattle are a greater threat to the environment than automobiles, because they produce a greater quantity of greenhouse gases, a UN report claimed yesterday.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said growth in the livestock sector would contribute far more greenhouse gases than transportation accelerating the calamitous process of global warming.
According to its estimate, intestinal gases from farm animals, gases from manure, deforestation to create pastures and the energy consumed by livestock businesses, together account for 18 percent of greenhouse gases currently.
FAO chief Henning Steinfeld said “urgent action is required to remedy the situation”. The FAO report titled “Livestock's Long Shadow” warns that world meat production would reach 465 million tons per annum by 2050, more than double of what it produced in 1999/2001. Milk output would also grow from 580 million tons to 1043 million tons.
The annual growth in meat and dairy product consumption was because of “increase prosperity”.
The report goes on to say that cattle accounted for 65 percent of nitrous-oxide - a greenhouse gas with a 296 times greater potential to cause global warming. Nitrous oxide is released from manure. Bowel gases from the ruminants include methane which is 23 times as warming as Carbon dioxide, the report said. The animals also contributed 64 percent to human-activity related ammonia - blamed for acid rain.
The report calls for smarter production methods and improved animal feeds that would reduce flatulence in the animals to minimize the consequent methane emissions. Governments would have to cut the environmental costs per animal “by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level" the report says.
