We have been thinking a lot lately about climate change. It has become clear that our food choices make a difference. Apparently, in fact, the food we eat contributes about one-quarter of the total greenhouse gases generated each year.
Over half of that amount (14.5%) is caused by raising livestock.
Therefore, many have concluded that veganism is the answer.
But, is it?! Most of us (home cheese makers) make cheese and love cheese. We want to continue, even though we also want to help with the climate change crisis. The question is – can we do that or do we have to eat only “cheese” with parentheses around it?
The crux of the matter is, of course, milk. It is the one ingredient common to all dairy products – from cows, goats, sheep and water buffalo. In general, it takes 10 pounds of milk to produce 1 pound of hard cheese.
There are some who advocate for eating the soft cheeses because they use less milk and the young cheeses because they use less energy to age. There is even the theory that lower fat cheeses are better than fattier ones because, when the fat is removed, it gets used for butter which has a lower carbon footprint than cheese. What?!
The Big Picture:
All over the world, especially in South America, Africa and Asia, meat and milk provide nourishment when there aren’t good alternatives available. In many countries, livestock do much more than provide food – they help to plow fields, transport water and fertilize crops.
We know that small farmers in underdeveloped countries are not the main problem, and yet, the governments of many of these countries are working to solve it. It’s humbling to know that some countries in Africa are working hard to lessen their carbon footprint.
Even in our country, there are many small farmers who rely on milk and meat from their livestock to survive. Many of them are practicing sustainable farming methods and doing what they can to solve the climate change crisis.
Here are a few problems and thankfully, solutions. If you have more to add, please share your thoughts in the comments.
Problems and Solutions:
(Note- we’ll use cows for this, but it applies to sheep and goats, etc. as well.)
Problem: Cows eat grains. It takes a lot of land, energy and water to grow these grains and it takes a lot of grains to raise a cow. Vegans argue that it is much more efficient for humans to eat the grains directly than to eat them after they have been consumed by livestock.
Solution: Fortunately, there is a solution to this – 100% pasture grazed cows.
Some dairy farmers are using innovative grazing techniques to feed the cows and to sequester carbon at the same time.
When cows graze, they fertilize the soil by putting carbon back into it. This fertilization results in the soil retaining more water which prevents erosion and makes the land healthier.
Cow manure is also used to fertilize vegetable gardens.
Doesn’t this take a lot of land?
It does, but this is land that is often unsuitable for growing crops. It is also land that is not being developed. Can you picture the Vermont landscape with housing developments where there are now fields of cows?
It is also land that has grass on it and grass sequesters carbon. It is true that if you took that land and planted pollinator gardens on all of it, it would sequester a lot more carbon, but consider this- in a capitalist country, it is much more likely that the land would be developed. How many farms have already been broken up into lots sold off for houses?
Problem: Cows produce methane (and sheep produce even more). The bacteria in their stomachs causes them to burp and well, you know … This might seem insignificant, but, actually, methane traps 28% more heat than carbon, so it is 28 times worse for the environment.
Solution: Scientists are working on a kind of probiotic that will solve this problem (patent pending).
Breeding can also be done to reduce methane. In New Zealand they have bred sheep who release 10% less methane into the air. They also grow more wool. This is a permanent solution.
Changes to the diet can also be made – In India, they have made adjustments which have decreased methane by 12% – 15%.
In Kenya, they are testing grasses. The results of their studies will be available soon. They expect this to reduce methane by 30%.
Latin American ranchers are experimenting with silvopastoralism, planting trees in the pastures to sequester more carbon.
Suggestions:
Given all that is being done, what can we, as cheese makers do? There are many ways we can support the movement to stop climate change.
- Whenever possible, we can use milk from pasture raised livestock.
- Whenever possible, we can use organic milk or milk that we know comes from sustainable farming methods.
- Whenever possible, we can buy milk and dairy products locally (uses less gas for transport).
What do you think?
Jeri Case says
This comment came from Deb Coffman:
Please bare with me, this will be long, but hopefully enlightening. I’m recently retired from a DOD research and development command.
I’m sorry, I was unable to find how to comment on the blog from my iPad, but I would like to point out that the Earth was FAR more heavily populated with animals of all sorts, largest portion being herbivores, from the beginning of time. This did not cause climate change then nor is it now. I agree that pasture fed livestock is always best and the reduction of chemical applications on both livestock and food will greatly improve the situation.
All of that said…yes, we as humans have abused the Earth and it needs to stop, but at the same time..and even more importantly, the Earth is a living entity itself and as it adjusts and readjusts from within the core what happens on the surface also changes.
For example, both major earthquakes resulting in major tsunamis are far more responsible for recent climate change than anything else (not excusing human abuses at all). The Christmas earthquake, with follow-on tsunami, that destroyed the resort areas of Thailand also was strong enough to actually alter the tilt of the Earth’s axis by 8 centimeters which isn’t a large amount, but we are talking about the entire planet. That’s a lot! That has a lasting effect on all weather patterns…period. Every jet stream is effected by the change in the high and low spots of the Earth’s surface, so no surprise how the weather has taken a nose dive since.
Then there was the seriously large earthquake, and resulting tsunami, in Japan. That earthquake was strong enough to move a tectonic plate resulting in the island of Japan ( which of course is, as with all islands, the top of an undersea mountain and mountain range) to move 2.4 meters. That’s move Japan completely to new a longitude and latitude. Phenomenal stuff again.
Now, that shift in the tectonic plate resulted in the shift of an entire undersea mountain range resulting in the shift of ocean currents emanating from that area…resulting in tropical currents being increased in normal areas and introducing them into new areas (melting icebergs). This increase in warmer ocean currents not only effects the surface weather (hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, even snow), it effects upper atmospheric conditions, as well, due to condensation rates changing everywhere resulting in heavy rains and flooding or severe droughts, horrendously hot temperatures (114* in France ??), unusual snow totals in surprising areas and less snow in more conventional areas, etc.
Climate change is a natural and normal part of of the planet’s lifecycle but humans need to slow down tremendously the use of chemicals. Poisoning what we have will never improve nor slow down the situation…it will only accelerate the process.
Cows and goats are not responsible.
Margaret Byrd (https://blog.cheesemaking.com/maggie-byrd-in-holly-springs-mississippi/) sent us this comment:
Thinking about climate change reminds me of the old “Back the the Land” movement in the 60s.
It’s true that the goats produce a load of manure in pelleted form but they spread it all over the land. Unlike chemical fertilizers it helps the soil by fertilizing as well as improving the organic matter and bacterial action in the soil.
On my land there is a lot of sand and it isn’t possible to use it for crops without a lot of erosion making things worse. The goats increase the topsoil. Their little divided hooves pierce the ground helping to keep it from compacting.
I use the manure and hay from their pens for my raised beds. Further, since their manure creates fertilizers I don’t buy chemical fertilizers and my food is about as local as possible to have, so there is no transport involved.
Claire Barker (https://blog.cheesemaking.com/claire-barker-in-colorado/) sent us this comment:
Bless you for opening up the forum as it is such a hot button topic.
My take on it? I know you always have time for a novel! 🙂
I actually hate the “Climate Change” moniker. We who live with the outdoors-and make a tidbit, a meal, a partial or full living off of our place of residence have always had to contend with the “weather”-and yes-it is doing strange things and there are measurable scientific graphs and comparisons that can back trends up. But “Climate Change” defocuses on the smaller changes that we can make to assure the health of our air, water and soil-which is the only thing we can change. After all-one big volcanic eruption can mess the whole carbon thing up-and we have NO control over that at all.
What many “anti-domestic ruminant chanters” are forgetting is that the land mass that is the contiguous North and South America-indeed-all over the world has always been FULL of MILLIONS of ruminants! 🙂 The way they roamed and helped part of the eco-system with their grazing, browsing, chewing, cudding, burping, pooping, peeing and wandering is still necessary today-it is just all out of wack…not in numbers but in management.
Vast swatches of mono-culture with the destructive farming practices, concentrated and centralized meat and milk production, centralized energy system paradigms (large generation with vast transmission)-even with renewables-which should be local and regional-but tied to the bigger grid, and a multitude of other things all contribute to the decline in soil, water and air health.
I know I’m preaching to the choir-but here locally-we are now facing so much tree damage and beetle kill…it is kind of the perfect storm that everyone wants to attribute to “climate change”.
In reality it is a combination of
decades of suppression of natural fire cycles-which were usually smaller, more localized and opened up tracts of regrowth.
extended drought on forests that have hit the end of their natural life cycle anyway. There was also an extended draught in the 1950’s.
vast pumping and shifting of underground and surface waters from one eco-system to the other
AND-almost complete removal of vast grazing permittees (yes-some of them have been “naughty”-but many kept trails open, co-existed with wildlife, kept underbrush and small tree tracts from developing into large over grown tangles of fire fuel
AND-a shift from humans who were less mobile, more personally and communally connected- recreating with their own or four legged feet-to an explosion of access with the wheeled and flying mechanisms of transport. Desert or mountain-nothing seems to be held in a mindset of tread lightly and curiously or not at all…I think if I saw even the devastation of humans on Mt Everest-all claiming to be lovers of the outdoors-I would vomit.
Any open tract of land is now being speculated on -even by the earth loving anti-meat/dairy crowd-or other entrepreneurial sorts, as “useful for renewable energy development and mineral/human use extraction”-denying the importance and fragility of those sacred spaces for wildlife corridors, and HUGE carbon sinks in this ever increasingly crowded planet…not to mention a place to just sit on a rock and ponder the absolute wonder of the world.
I hope that all of us do what we can to reduce our own waste-which is the idea behind homesteading. There isn’t a gardener alive that hasn’t had to contend with the changing of challenges from year to year-bugs, rain, no rain, hail, freeze, larger pests, our own goats…And there isn’t a livestock owner yet-that hasn’t had years where reproduction wasn’t challenged, birth wasn’t challenged, pasture/feed cycles, water configurations, predation, disease or whatever hasn’t affected something or all. It is life. It is what it is and everyone is running around in a panic speculating on how next to make the earth fit our paradigm on how to fix it. Yet-on the flip side-we have created these amazing uses for solar, grey water, extending growing seasons and natural nutrient additions for soil. We are such a funny species!
We instinctively know what will be the better choices and consistently as a nation-spent a lot of time arguing over the methodology and where to spend the money. It is a fear based and short term economic gain way of thinking-which trips us up.
I choose to have a lot of faith in the healing powers of nature AND the intelligence, compassion and problem solving ability of homo-sapiens.
There are far more raptors in the skies than there were when I was a child (and I was a child who would have noticed these things). Wildlife is oddly thriving in the backwoods of Chernobyl. The coyote is alive and well. Deer still get hit on the highway, and most anyone in the USA can get a bite to eat and a roof over their heads with a bit of imagination. Farming and ranching based communities tend to be the ones that weather generalized economic ups and downs better than the boom/bust nature of mining, tourism and other fly by night-non-community based developments.
It is the small personal steps that we can take that give us a sense of purpose and connection….choosing to bring washable service to a potluck or event. Having that re-usable coffee cup for the traveling mug, sorting our trash, paying to get electronics dealt with well, utilizing that manure-those feed sacks-that extra milk in our washable canning jugs-that big bone-those iffy veggies.
Being willing to pass a tax bond to proliferate better waste management systems, being aware of the water running to brush our teeth, or the gray water systems that could be such a source of better construction, construction laws that make sense for their given environment, being willing to leave the planet when nature tells us it is time…the ways are endless-we all know this.
Whatever way to “God” we find ourselves-kindness, compassion, self awareness, environmental awareness and curiosity and self regulation seem to be the best answers….This all said as I go and start up my diesel to haul my wee mare out to a good ride in the country! Sigh…I can’t win-so I can’t point fingers either!
Love you lots and lots-ALWAYS so happy to hear about other intentional people making cheese around the world-the healing thread of bound protein and fat molecules with regional spice thrown in! LOVE it!
LOVE IT LOVE IT!
This article is ludicrous. Manmade (animal-made) climate change is a hoax. Carbon dioxide has been demonized by the climate change hoaxers who have called it a greenhouse gas. It is not a greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is necessary for plants which convert it into the oxygen that we breathe. Currently, Carbon Dioxide levels are marginal for plant life and they need to be increased significantly. If we lose plants, all animals that breathe oxygen will die. Scientific data used by the global warming hoaxers has been manipulated to support their false premise. MANY legitimate scientists dispute the fake data of the global warming community. Please don not publish an article on this subject again.
Thank you for reading this article. Maybe you can clarify it because I’m confused by your response. We know that carbon is essential for life. That is why we need plants to sequester carbon. How does it then follow that climate change is a hoax?
I don’t know where you came up with this, but there is a long, scientific history of increasing evidence that carbon dioxide passes visible light, which is absorbed by the Earth and re-radiated in the form of infrared radiation, which is blocked by carbon dioxide, trapping it inside the atmosphere. This is exactly how a greenhouse works. (I know; we get about a quarter of our income from our 3,600 sqft greenhouse.)
You can even check this yourself! Have you ever looked at infrared photography? Ever notice how strikingly black the sky is in IR photography? That’s because it is absorbing infrared radiation, instead of re-radiating it into space. You can buy an inexpensive IR filter for your digital camera and see the effect yourself!
This is due largely to water vapour, but also to a range of so-called “trace gasses,” of which carbon dioxide is the largest component.
And then there’s Venus. The experiment has already been done to see what happens when reinforcing feedback causes a “run-away” greenhouse effect, induced by excessive carbon-dioxide, with surface temperatures of over 900 degrees, which cannot be explained solely by Venus’s somewhat closer proximity to the Sun.
Then there’s the “hockey stick.” If you graph historical carbon dioxide levels together with temperatures over long periods, you see at the far right of the graph a steep rise in both — the steepest rise on Earth known to scientists.
Then, there’s the practical. I’m a farmer. I keep good records. Our growing season has increased nearly ten days (on average) over the past thirteen years. This sounds like A Good Thing™ in northerly climates, but our summer irrigation season keeps getting longer, using more water, and if it keeps increasing at this rate, it won’t be too long before we simply cannot grow anything in the summer at all.
I am certain by your strident and defiant tone that you are incapable of even considering these arguments, but I just had to say something. It’s real. Stop denying it, and do something about it!
But militant vegans will tell you, “That pasture could be used to grow food for humans!”
Not to pit dairy lovers against each other, but I’d like to note that goats do just fine on browse, eating shrubs and low tree branches that cows won’t even consider. Goats can be raised in forests that are totally unsuitable to either grass or human farming!
Good point. You gotta love goats!
Jeri, what an excellent and timely article! I raise my 30 dairy goats on our 5 acre farmstead, on organic pasture with local organic hay supplement. I do have an organic grain mix that is soaked (lasts 3x longer and easier to digest) in whey (so nutritious) that the goats get during milking. The goats are milked once a day, and milked through the year for two years, then bred for kidding on the third year. This way we have alot less births and kids to find homes for. The goats spend all day on pasture. I have ALL the water from my cheeseroom and milk house go through a 3 chamber clarifiying tank that overflows into a 3000 gallon holding tank for “agricultural irrigation”, mainly the forest pastures for the goats. We have 6 rotating pastures that are lush from the natural fertilizer the goats leave behind. In the past we had horses on the same property and it was a dustbowl from them eating down to the nubs of the grass. Once we brought goats onto the property the landscape changed dramatically! Very few bare spots in the pastures anymore. All of the dirty bedding from the stalls is used for mulching our gardens or used for terracing steep bare dirt hillsides on the farmstead (there are less and less of those!). We have areas planted just for pollinators… a lavender labyrinth, a few hundred feet of memorial gardens planted with sages, lavenders, elderberries, etc… There are so many ways goat farmers can make positive impacts on the environment. My goats are currently clearing 2 acres of brush in anticipation of fire season (which has already started, sadly) here in Northern California. Thanks again for the great blog, I would love to use this info at my farmer’s market stand if that’s ok.
Thank you, Karin. Of course you can use this info – I’m honored. (For anyone who missed our interview with Karin, check it out here.)
Thanks for all that you do, Karin!
Hi Karin,
I am very interested in your way of raising, feeding and breeding your goats. Would you be willing to share your knowledge and information? I currently have two does that supports a few families. I live on an acre of useable land. I am trying to find ways to have milk through out the year without breeding every year. I also live in Northern California. I am older and not too familiar with the computer, so I am not sure how we could get in touch if your willing to share your knowledge. I also understand if you don’t want to share as this is a lot of hard work, homesteading.
Hi Elizabeth, I am pretty busy but always happy to share information and talk about goats! Where do you live? I am a little north of Eureka.
This seems to be up to the individual goat.
I’m milking five at the moment; three of those I breed every other year; they drop off in the winter, but recover to give almost as much (or more!) the following spring. But two of them just drop way off in the winter, and never recover.
I’m at a loss to explain it. They all get the same feed. Lineage seems to have nothing to do with it: the daughter of my top multi-season goat is a strict one-season goat, and the daughter of my other one-season goat is a multi-season goat!