More on cow flatulence

Why do I say more? 

Because I told my own story about cow flatulence in Five Things You Don't Know About Me over at Legacy Matters but no way could I ever be as funny as James Lileks even if "cow-whiffs"  - our family's term for passing gas - always struck me as hilarious.

We have met the enemy and it mooos

Apparently the beasts of the field do nothing but wander around all day asking their brethren to "pull my hoof." Every time a cow feels a small sense of relief, a polar bear goes through the ice.

Or will, eventually. So livestock give off more greenhouse gases than cars. Eliminate the internal combustion problem, and you'd still have to deal with numberless tons of ruminant redolence floating into Gaia's celestial nostrils. We're off the hook: If global warming is organic, doesn't that make it OK?

That follows the UN Report from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) calling Livestock a major threat to the environment. contributing more to greenhouse emissions than all transportation combined.

The BBC reports that

Gas emissions from flatulent cows could soon be restricted by a EU quota system as penal as that imposed on milk production, an agricultural expert has predicted.

Cows again.  It's all about the gassy bossies. 

Flatulence and belching by cows derive from a process known as enteric fermentation which leads to a build up of methane gas in the guts of these animals, pressure which is relieved by emission.

If flatulence can ground an airplane, we can all thank God that cows don't fly.