I’ve seen a couple of interesting stories on livestock and climate in the news recently. One story, published in the Los Angeles Times, discusses how scientists at the University of Delaware are studying the genes of chicken with naked necks to see how they might be able to incorporate that trait into future varieties of chicken to make them more resistant to heat. Click here for the story.
A second story, published in National Geographic, describes a research project from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth which showed that feeding cows garlic cut emissions of methane from the cows in half. The leader of the research group said that allicin from the garlic killed off methane-producing bacteria in the cows’ digestive systems. Methane is one of the most effective gases for trapping heat in the atmosphere. You can read the story by clicking here. No word on what it does to the taste of the milk.
