Animal agriculture is a leading driver of global warming; dairy cows play an outsized role with methane emissions.

each milking cow ~739 lbs CH4 / yr

Dairy farmers milking the 9,300,000 dairy cows in the USA are responsible for 3.1 megatons of CH4 emissions, according to EPA data.

* 1,730 kilotons cow burps

(enteric fermentation)

* 1,381 kilotons (kt) manure

Each milking cow accounts for 335 kg (739lbs) of CH4 emissions annually.

Over a ten year period, CH4 is a greenhouse gas that’s 104x more powerful than CO2 at warming the earth. Let’s see how that compares to a typical car, and how it compares to all registered vehicles in three dairy states.

The EPA estimates the typical American car emits 4,600 kg of CO2 per year. That assumes typical mileage. Again, doing some maths…

Multiplying 335kg x 104x, we see the global warming impact of a dairy cow is …

34,790 kg of CO2 equivalent. (34,790/4,600 = 7.6)

In other words, one dairy cow equals eight cars in terms of the global warming impact

Each cow – whether beef or dairy – warms the earth more than a typical car driving typical mileages on American roads every day. Depending on when you measure the warming effect, each cow can be multiple times worse than a car.

Now consider cow populations in three dairy states, and compare them to the number of registered vehicles.

If each state stopped breeding new dairy cows into existence, in terms of global warming impact over ten years, it would be like taking the entire fleet of California cars off the road. It’d be like removing all of the automobiles from Wisconsin and Vermont four times over!

Why this matters: atmospheric methane concentrations are about 2.5x what they were before the industrial age. But methane readily sinks into the earth. We are just a wee bit out of balance, so some fine-tuning could tip the scales dramatically.

Every year, humanity releases about 10 megatons more CH4 than the environment can ‘sink’.

That’s an amazing opportunity. If America switched to plant-based dairy, which, except for rice milk, emits nearly zero methane, we could make great strides toward getting global methane emissions into balance.

Documents /Sources ^ https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-02/documents/us-ghg-inventory-2019-chapter-5-agriculture.pdf

– Table 5-4: CH4 Emissions from Enteric Fermentation (kt)

– Table 5-7: CH4 and N2O Emissions from Manure Management (kt) ~ https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45519/56833_err205_errata.pdf?v=0 # https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/statistics-information/ https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions ** https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle * www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/07/WGI_AR5.Chap_.8_SM.pdf ` https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/ https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/after-2000-era-plateau-global-methane-levels-hitting-new-highs

Agriculture Fairness Alliance lobbies to stop our government using our tax dollars to bail out and subsidize animal agribusiness.

AFA lobbies in DC to reduce livestock populations & end subsidies to animal ag

Our first lobbying effort is sponsoring the AT RISK FARMER & RANCHER Pilot Program, which will help animal farmers switch to sustainable, non-exploitative businesses – for humanity, for the animals, and for justice.