Cow belches help drive California dairy industry lobbying blitz

Cow dung and cow stomach gas: not just smelly, but also politically loaded.

Hence a new California dairy industry campaign pushing back on California’s recommendation to regulate a naturally occurring source of methane. Part of the state’s plan to curb climate-altering methane involves getting food waste out of landfills, where it releases gas as it decomposes. The California Air Resources Board has also suggested slashing methane from cow manure and from a source of about half of the emissions from California’s 5.5 million beef and dairy cows: something called “enteric fermentation.”

Or, as it’s also known, gasiness ( “mostly belching,” an ARB document clarifies). “FLATULENCE,” blared the subject line of an email sent out Tuesday as part of an effort by groups like the Western United Dairymen and the Milk Producers Council to beat back climate mandates. Featuring an image of a cow with a red target on its body, the email urges readers to “say NO to unbridled ARB authority.”

“The focus here is to highlight ARB’s efforts at over-regulating…read more