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CAN YOU MAKE A COW CO2 NEUTRAL?
Meat animals are widely identified as major causes of CO2 emissions. But is it perhaps possible to make a cow co2-neutral, or even co2 negative?
Scientists try to find the answer to that question in regenerative agricultural techniques. Traditional farming techniques cause farmland to emit co2, among other things due to set-aside and overgrazing. Intensively used farmland contains less than half of the co2 it can potentially absorb. By allowing cows to graze exactly enough, they help the plants to absorb co2 into the soil. However, the question is not yet fully answered. There is a maximum amount of co2 that the soil can absorb. Above that amount, the soil emits as much as it absorbs. And the circumstances in which the uptake is optimal are not yet entirely clear either. |
Photo used under Creative Commons from Gilles San Martin
