Cow gas destroyer could save planet
Saturday January 26 2008
Japanese boffins may have accidentally struck gold in the fight against global warming: they believe they have devised a way to neutralise the perilous belches of 1.5 billion cows.
Junichi Takahashi's discovery could, he says, dramatically reduce the environmental damage caused by the world's cattle herds, whose collective flatulence is thought to account for 5pc of all greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the team from Obihiro University of Agriculture, a few simple food additives, costing about 75c each day per cow, could remove virtually all the methane from a herd's daily belches.
Cows produce astonishing quantities of the gas as the bacteria in their stomachs break down plant fibres.
The formula acts as a suppressant of methane production in the cow's stomach.(©The Times, London)
- Leo Lewis in Tokyo
