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Organic cattle farmers defend themselves against the accusation that their animals are partly to blame for global warming. A farm animal researcher explains.
The frustration of organic cattle farmers like Alois Kiegerl from Deutschlandsberg or Thomas Lanzer-Breitfuss from Bruck an der Mur is great. “We produce high-quality food, strive for high animal welfare standards, species-appropriate feeding and grazing, manage the alpine pastures and then hear from consumers that our animals are partly to blame for global warming,” both of them explained at a press conference by BioHarvest Styria.
Calculation method questionable
Styria Beef chairman Thomas Lanzer-Breitfuss, farm animal researcher Thomas Guggenberger, LKR Alois Kiegerl and organic chairman LKR Thomas Gschier jointly denied the press conference and then a discussion event in Deutschlandsberg.
But is that really true? Thomas Guggenberger, livestock researcher at the HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein, investigated this question with a team of experts and came to the conclusion that the currently used assessment framework of the internationally valid calculation method severely distorts the current discussion about methane emissions from ruminant farming. “For Austria, it was shown that the assessment of the potential impact systematically differs from the actual impact on global warming. According to the current state of knowledge, it can be assumed that methane from ruminant husbandry in Austria does not make any additional contribution to global warming,” emphasizes Guggenberger and substantiates this with figures. In 1890 there were a total of 2 million cows in the area that corresponds to present-day Austria. Today there are only 700,000. “As a result, the methane gas emissions from today’s cow population cannot lead to higher net emissions at all.”
Few research results
Guggenberger explains why agriculture is so on the defensive when it comes to the methane gas issue by saying that this topic has only come up in the last five years. He is convinced: “Slowly the scientists who have valid research results on this topic will come together and only then will the formation of opinions become clearer.” to explain the methane gas emissions in detail.
Feature photos: Bio Austria, Bio Harvest Styria
