The Cow Genome and Global Warming???
I’m sure many of you heard that last week scientists announced they had sequenced the cow genome. How does this relate to the environment? Genetically modified burgers? Increased milk production? What about global warming? What about farts? Could our newfound knowledge of the genome lead to engineering cows that emit less gas? It is well established that methane is a greenhouse gas and it’s also one of the gasses in cow flatulence. While we are still uncertain how significant of a greenhouse contributor the cows are, the idea of decreasing methane output is certainly interesting.
Actually the other day I was reading an article about cow flatulence and how it was affecting global warming. Scientists in the U.K. have tested feeding cows garlic which reduces acid in the cow's stomach which decreaes the cow's flatulence. Thus decreasing methane and greenhouse gases. Really, I think all of this is a little silly, could the tons of cows in the world really be affecting global warming. Its seems like such a silly topic that cow flatulence could lead to the ice caps melting. Yet, if it really is a problem some scientist across the ocean have figured a way to help decrease the methane in the air. So why are we not doing this here. I would really like to see like data from these studies because I would seriously wanna know if feeding cows garlic is gonna decrease their flatulence and in return decrease the methane in the environment. This is really just a silly subject because it does revolve around farting, but still very interesting.
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