From: Strata Rose Chalup (strata@virtual.net)
Date: Tue Apr 18 2000 - 13:50:37 PDT
ThosStew@aol.com wrote:
> judging from the story, which is however sketchy, seems to me you're
> overreacting. It's just, from what I can tell, a well known ordinary
> bacterium that has the effect of making cows and sheep fart less--Bean-o for
> Bossy.
Possibly true, but since ruminant digestion is a bacterial function,
you are still changing what's going on without knowledge of the
long-term
effects. If this is such a beneficial match, and is bacteria already
occurring, why hasn't the shift occurred by itself?
> Domestic
> animal's flatulence is known to be one of the major -- and you could say
> man-made, inasmuch as we're the ones running these herds -- causes of global
> warming.
Yes, albeit that an extraordinary effort only will reduce these
gases by up to 6 percent if adopted worldwide, I question if the effort
is justifiable at all.
> We'll miss the warm funky smell in the barns, I suppose, but progress always
> carries a price.
Precisely. And this new feed will cost just a little extra, I'm sure,
and it's of course worth the cost because it's slowing down global
warming.
What about the vast numbers of domestic cattle/sheep/goats which
principally forage and are not fed at all? US rangeland beef, India's
cows, goats & sheep in most poor countries, etc? Guess they'll have to
buy feed from the developed world instead of grazing, or that 6 percent
becomes even less.
I admit I went off without researching the bacterium, but I stand by my
"what the hell are they thinking" attitude towards the whole thing. If
some cattle producers (feedlot) and dairy farmers want to adopt the new
feed and are willing to pay for it, I say great, I'm willing to pay a
little more for meat and milk. Good luck on the world sheep & goat
population, and the N% of the world's kine which forage for their dinner
and turn roughage into something that a family who can barely afford
grain for themselves can eat.
_Strata
-- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Strata Rose Chalup [schalup@netscape.com] | strata@virtual.net Project Manager | VirtualNet Consulting iPlanet/Netscape Professional Services | http://www.virtual.net/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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