Calls for farmer action on ruminant emissions

Farm vets have been urged to be more proactive in debating and addressing the climatic consequences of emissions linked to the livestock industry.

The plea was made by former RCVS president Lord Sandy Trees as he warned the sector could be at risk of destruction during his keynote address to the BCVA Congress at Newport’s Celtic Manor.

The crossbench peer argued that veterinary professionals could play a major role in shaping debates around ruminants’ impact on the climate.

Interventions

But, despite acknowledging the need for further research in some areas, he also called for delegates to “apply what we have got” and go further in deploying interventions that are already available in practice.

He said: “Veterinary science can make a huge contribution to the management of ruminant emissions.”

Concerns about the environmental impact of livestock production – particularly from methane emissions that are known to warm the atmosphere more quickly than other gases – have been a significant driver in the recent growth of interest in alternative food sources.

Earlier this year, the Bezos Earth Fund announced plans to invest more than US$9 million (£6.93 million) in separate research projects, led by the RVC and The Pirbright Institute respectively, examining how methane-producing organisms spread through cattle and the response that would be necessary to make an emission-reducing vaccine viable.

Slower decline

Prof Lord Trees said that, while the UK’s anthropogenic methane emissions are estimated to have fallen by 62.5% since 1990, the decline within agriculture has been much slower at around 15%, despite a 30% reduction in cattle herds over a similar period.

But he pointed out that productivity had increased substantially while emissions per unit of productivity had fallen, and highlighted that UK cattle emissions were lower than both global and western European levels, as he argued: “We have a good story to tell.”

He further compared the livestock sector to industries including steel as he warned it would be “stupid” to import products at a higher cost in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than those that could be produced domestically.

Progress

He argued that delegates should be proud of the progress that has already been made as he cautioned: “We must guard against destroying our indigenous livestock industry.”

Prof Lord Trees is now a member of the House of Lords environment and climate change select committee, which is currently holding a dedicated inquiry on methane.

He said a successful effort to reduce methane levels would offer time for additional ways of dealing with carbon dioxide, which stays in the atmosphere for much longer than methane, to be found.

He added: “We’re going to have to do a lot about CO2 because that will persist for hundreds and hundreds of years.”

Global warming

But while Prof Lord Trees stressed there was “no question that global warming is a fact”, he admitted to having reservations about the current pursuit of climate policies and described the UK’s present target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 as “extremely challenging”.

He also argued that policymakers should be more concerned about the total carbon footprint than net zero because of activities that are not included in its calculations.