Cow Gas Study Not Just A Lot Of Hot Air

FARM NEWS

Breading cows who can "hold it in".

by Staff Writers
Sydney (AFP) Aug 18, 2006
Scientists have launched a multi-million dollar project to reduce flatulence in cows, hoping that a drop in gas can help in the fight against global warming. The project aims to breed more efficient cows that convert their food into more milk and less methane, one of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising temperatures across the planet.

"We're looking at feed conversion efficiency," said Dieter Adam, a manager at New Zealand's Livestock Improvement Corporation. "We want fuel-efficient cows."

The Australia-New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership Fund said the research project would help farmers selectivly breed cows that with were more efficient in converting food into milk.

"There is some scientific evidence indicating that if cows are more efficient milk producers, they produce less methane," Adam said.

In 2003, the New Zealand government attempted to impose a methane tax on farmers because their livestock was responsible for more than half the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

But the so-called "fart tax" was dropped after protests from farmers.

Source: Agence France-Presse

FARM NEWS

No Confidence In Organic

Le Bugue, France (UPI) Aug 09, 2006
When it comes to food labeled "Organic," what you read is not necessarily what you get. This is the shocking discovery exposed by the Dallas Morning News after its investigative reporter began poking into the reliability of the USDA's various organic labels.

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