Efficient Meat and Dairy Needed to Curb Methane Emissions, Study Finds

https://doi.org/10.1029/2021AV000391

Adopting a plant-based diet has been touted as a way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by humans, but a new study finds that improving the efficiency of livestock production is an even more effective strategy for reducing global methane emissions.

It looked at the amount of methane released per kilogram of animal protein produced and projected future emissions. The authors of the study found that advances in agriculture over the past two decades have allowed for the production of meat, eggs, and milk that could result in increasingly low methane emissions, but some countries have not had access to the technology that would allow for these advances.

Thus, the study suggests that livestock efficiency needs to be improved in order to significantly reduce methane emissions.

These efforts are predicted to have a greater impact than simply eating less meat, and according to the results of this paper, will help inform future climate policy, and the methods developed in the study will allow countries to make up-to-date estimates of methane emissions from livestock.

Globally, raising animals for milk, meat, and eggs and humans account for as much as 1/3 of methane emissions, with dairy and beef cattle being the top contributors due to their large numbers. Also, since cattle are ruminants like buffalo, sheep, and goats, the microorganisms in their gut produce methane as a byproduct of breaking down food. It is also expected to increase as the population continues to grow and the demand for these products increases.

In this study, the authors used the

In this study, the latest methods (IPCC) were used to study the relationship between climate change and methane produced by livestock, and FAO livestock production data was used to calculate the production efficiency of each country. 2000-2018 total emissions increased, but due to increased production efficiency, emissions from most types of livestock decreased globally. The study found a decrease, and the impact of advanced breeding methods and improved nutrition has resulted in animals producing more milk and meat.

This has been shown to be effective in reducing the amount of meat eaten when looking at the amount of methane emissions that can be expected in the future, but continued improvements in production efficiency have been found to have even more potential to reduce methane, especially in countries with low efficiency and high future production.

It is estimated that improvements in agriculture in the top 10 countries with the highest potential to reduce methane could account for 60-65% of global methane emissions reductions by 2050.