Argentine researchers are using special backpacks made for cows to capture cow belches and turn them into power while fighting climate change.

The cows are each hooked up to tubes that carry flatulence away from the cow’s digestive system and store the gas in a balloon-like bag on their backs. Since their belches are mostly made up of methane–the main component of natural gas–the contents of the backpack can be converted into energy that can actually be used.

Is it time for a war on cows?

A cow can produce up to 300 liters of methane a day, which is enough to keep a refrigerator running for the same amount of time. While cattle aren’t likely to replace standard power plants anytime soon (read: ever), the power could be useful for people living off-grid.

“We believe that today it could be used in areas where conventional energy is not available,” Guillermo Berra, the scientist working on the project at Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology, told the BBC.

Argentina might be a good candidate for that type of alternative power, since the country has more than 50 million cows in rural areas (more cows, in fact, than people in the country).

But the biggest benefit of the technology, if it takes off beyond the researchers’ experiments, is the potential to help curb climate change.

Dairy production is notoriously bad for the environment, and cow gas alone accounts for around 2.8 gigatons of CO2-equivalent emissions each year–or 5% of all the human-caused greenhouse gases in the world. That’s not counting the impacts from cattle feed and other parts of agriculture.