Apr 05
You ride your bike to work every day, you eat locally grown food, you recycle, and turn off all of the lights when you leave the room. So, what else can you do to help the environment? Start feeding your cows better, for one. According to a new study by DEFRA ( Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs) in the UK, changing the diet of livestock like cows and sheep could help reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions.
The department recommends a diet of “maize silage, naked oats, and higher sugar grasses,” according to Reuters. Feeding cows high sugar grasses could reduce methane emissions by 20 percent, and feeding sheep naked oats could reduce sheep’s emissions by 33 percent.
Of course, there are other concerns to factor in, as well. Says DEFRA, “In the longer term the benefits gained by changing animals’ diets will need to be considered against other environmental impacts as well as how practical or costly they are for the farming industry to implement.”
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