Methane Myopia - Seth Itzkan
My response to the typical methane inquiry about grassfed cattle, enjoy!
“Allow me to put this matter into proper context. Methane is a natural result of the digestion of cellulose via methane producing bacteria (methanogens) in the guts of animals (including insects) that are optimized to eat grass and wood (cellulose sources), such as cows, sheep, goats, termites and cockroaches. This breakdown and recycling of plant nutrients is - of course - essential to the heath of grasslands and their carbon rich soils. Grasslands NEED the interaction of grazers and prodigious amounts of them. The healthier the grasslands, the more grazers must be present. That’s how nature works. It’s like the seals and the kelp forests. They are a system. In a natural grassland system, there is no methane loading. The methane emitted via the necessary biological digestion of the cellulose is then broken down naturally in the soil and in the atmosphere in measure equal to what is produced. Most of the world’s soils today are suffering from a paucity of ruminant herds. There aren’t nearly enough. Ruminant numbers will very likely need to at least double in order to restore the soils of the world that have been decimated by the decline of megafauna at the hands of humans over the past 15,000 years, or so, since the last ice age. In the absence of these wild grazers and their predators, livestock, managed holistically, are our only choice.
Eventually, large parts of the world may be “rewilded,” but, given the panic that emerges with even the slight presence of foxes near human settlements (with their precious pets), I really don’t see how most people are going be ok with billions of wild grazers and 100s of millions of wolves, hyenas, lions, and all the rest, stampeding and patrolling right through suburbs. Don’t see it happening, and even if it did, and the grasslands were restored, would that then lead to an atmospheric methane problem? Is it ok for wild ruminants to emit methane, but not domestic ones?
The problem - of course - isn’t the animals, domestic or wild. The problem is the “system.” Are the animals in a system which is in balance with nature or aren’t they? If they are in a feedlot, eating soy and making manure lagoons, then, obviously, they aren’t in a system that can be self regulating. If, however, they’re on grass, and just eating grass, and moving in a way that restores soil, then they’re in a balanced system. The methane emitted is recycled. There’s no net gain. Assessing the impact of a system by just looking at one variable is, of course, profoundly misleading. There is no scenario in which building livestock to restore depleted soil is bad for the atmosphere or anything else. It is only a net benefit and it is something we must be acting on urgently. Thank you for your interest.”