U.S. science has finally caught up with what experienced sustainable farmers, holistic nutritionists and Nourishing Traditions / Weston A. Price followers around the world have already known for quite some time…
As reported in the Huffington Post, because of the growing consumer demand for sustainably-produced milk, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy is looking at everything from growing feed crops to trucking milk in order to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020—the equivalent of removing about 1.25 million cars from U.S. roads every year!
The dairy industry contributes about 2 percent to total greenhouse gas production in the U.S. Most of it comes from the cow, and the rest from growing feed crops and processing and transporting the milk. And most of the gas from the cow comes from, of all things, belching. Yes, friends, it is the gas that a cow emits from the front end, not the back end, that contributes most to global warming. And we now know that cows burp and fart so much because their digestive systems and intestinal flora are out of balance from eating a steady diet of corn and soy—most of it genetically engineered. It seems that American cow has a bad case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome!
Well those smarties at Group Danone of France (owners of Dannon and Stonyfield Farm) figured out that—surprise!—corn and soy are not healthy feeds for ruminant animals like cows—even when organically grown. Rather, feeding cows a natural diet of Omega-3-rich grasses, flax seed and alfalfa—which is what they were born to eat anyway—restores the internal ecology of the cow’s digestive rumen, which in turn considerably reduces the amount of greenhouse gases they emit.
As an added benefit, the “new” diet give the cows shinier coats, fewer foot problems and no stomach ailments. And when the cows are out grazing on grass in the pasture, farm feed and vet bills go down, and less pollution is created in growing and transporting feed crops. And to top it all off, the milk from pasture-fed cows is appreciably more nutritious, has significantly less bacteria, and is less allergenic.
To all of this I say, “Duh—I mean Yay!—it’s about time!”
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I am interested in learning about the time it takes for the rumen of cows to change when they go from a winter diet of grains and hay to grass grazing. I make butter and have had some dramatic differences in outcome and am wondering if it takes some time for the rumen of cow’s to adapt to fast grow grass in transition from a mainly dry diet. Thanks for any insights. Kim
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