When we’re looking for ways to save the environment, one of the things we don’t think of is the amount of livestock that crowds the planet, and the results of their flatulence, their burping and exhaling, and their excretions!

Let’s take cows, for example.

According to an article that appeared in the New York Times on June 4, 2009, “cows might be more dangerous to Earth’s atmosphere than trucks and cars combined.”  That’s because the average cow expels – through burps more often than flatulence – 200 to 400 pounds of methane a year.

And since worldwide production of milk and beef is expected to double in the next 30 years, the United Nations has called livestock one of the most serious near-term threats to the global climate.  Not only do they expel methane, but in order to have room for the herds, forest-clearing activity to create pasture land is devastating the planet.

Why do cows burp so much methane?  Possibly because they’re being fed a diet that is not natural to them – a high-grain diet designed to fatten them up quickly, rather than their normal grass diet which does not cause such intestinal upsets.

Scientists are experimenting with ways to make cows less dangerous.

For example, in the New York Times article, they discussed the experiments of Stonyfield Farm, the yogurt manufacturer, at the Vermont farms that supply it with organic milk.  Since January, cows at 15 farms “ have had their grain feed adjusted to include more plants like alfalfa and flaxseed — substances that, unlike corn or soy, mimic the spring grasses that the animals evolved long ago to eat.”

And according to the article, “As of the last reading in mid-May, the methane output of Mr. Choiniere’s herd had dropped 18 percent.  Meanwhile, milk production has held its own.”

It only makes sense.  Feeding animals on a diet that they are not supposed to be eating can only be harmful, as should be obvious since every single cow on a high-grain diet has to be fed antibiotics because they develop subacute acidosis.

Then of course there’s the amount of manure these cows produce.  If not properly disposed of, it can contaminate ground water and cause outbreaks of various illnesses including e coli.

The fewer cows on the planet mean the fewer pollutants on the planet.  You may want to go vegetarian because you don’t like the hormones that ranchers feed their cows.  But you could also consider going vegetarian because with fewer cows, the healthier the environment.