Bovine flatulence, greenhouse emissions

Burping en Francais

According to a researcher at the Climate Mission at the Caisse des Despots, A French state-owned bank, France's 20 million cows account for an astonishing 6.5 percent of national greenhouse-gas emissions.

Each year, the belches of Bessie and Benny send 26 million tonnes of these gases into the atmosphere.

Quelle horror!

And that's not even counting the 12 million tonnes originating in their faeces–"dejection bovine" to the French.

Forget the SUV as a source of climate warming; it's the cud chewers out in the pastures the greenies are now after.

France's cow population accounts for 80 percent of emissions from farm animals. Other repeated offenders include sheep, goats, pigs and fowl.

France has the biggest agricultural economy in the European Union. Other countries looking for solutions for bovine flatulence include the United States, Argentina and Australia.

But things could be worse in Canada whose agricultural contributes 10 to 13 percent of Canada's greenhouse emissions, according to the federal government.

In his popular book Fight Kyoto, Ezra Levant chronicles details of the Ottawa-sponsored ManureNet, an official government website tackling the sensitive subject of bovine flatulence–in both official languages.

"Our government believes that in order to meet Kyoto obligations, we have to make cattle and sheep toot less," Levant wrote, "It's no small thing–according to the government, emissions from animals and their manure make up 20 megatonnes of greenhouse gases each year–fully one twelfth the amount Canada must cut back to meet Kyoto's targets."

The Canadian government's resentment of odourous cows got nothing on the activists.

Environmental Defence Canada, an eco-activist group released a scathing 37-page report called It's Hitting the Fan in October 2002.

The report claimed that not only do cattle and pigs outnumber people in Canada, but that all of those animals are creating "foul odours", "toxic vapours" and even causing "headaches".

In the greenhouse hype, folk are forgetting the commonsense theories of people like Bob Friesen, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

That theory has been true for generations: "Animals produce manure, manure is spread on the land to grow crops, and animals eat the crops. It's a perfectly natural and beneficial cycle."

Meanwhile, the children's' song, Old MacDonald had a farm could soon going the way of the SUV.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com