During the digestion process, the ruminants expel massively, mainly by eructor, this gas in power warming 25 times more powerful than the co₂.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The agrifood group Danone announced Tuesday, January 17, that it intended to reduce by 30 % by 2030, compared to 2020, methane emissions linked to cows farming that provide its fresh milk factories. “We will see how we can improve practices in general on farms,” said Jeanette Coombs-Lanot, group spokesperson. Among the solutions mentioned: use of less emitting breeds, optimization of diets, prolonged maintenance in cows production, capture of manure emissions to enhance them in biogas …
The environmental assessment of cattle farming is burdened by the process of digestion of cows which expel, mainly by using, methane: the same as city gas, whose warming power is twenty-five times higher than carbon dioxide. Methane also escapes from manure.
“Danone is the first food group to set a specific objective of reducing methane emissions,” he said in a press release. This objective is in line with “Global Methane Pledge” : A hundred countries were committed during COP26 in 2021 to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 % by 2030, compared to 2020.
Danone’s objective covers fresh milk, bought directly from 58,000 dairy farms in 20 countries, which represents 70 % of its methane emissions. It does not extend to milk powder of baby preparations. Danone says he reduced “by around 14 %” his methane emissions between 2018 and 2020.
Change food, filter methane…
In Morocco, where the group collects milk from very small producers, “there is a lot of progress that can be made by optimizing production”, illustrated M Me Coombs-Lanot.
Improving the dairy yield of each cow makes it possible to reduce, in equal production, the number of animals present on a farm, and therefore emissions. Danone is also interested in innovations that promise to filter the methane emitted by cows – by means of a device installed on a halter (harnessing room placing itself on the head) – or reducing its production at the source, thanks to Algae-based food additives for example.
A report of the United Nations Environment Program pointed out in 2021 that technological solutions had only “limited potential” to significantly reduce emissions from the agricultural sector.
He first advocated behavioral changes, such as improving the management of farms and the adoption of diets in which meat and dairy products are more discreet or even disappear.