COVENTRY, Vt. —Fifteen Vermont farms working with Stonyfield Farm Inc. are reducing their carbon footprints by feeding their cows diets designed to reduce cow burps. The cow’s new diet of flaxseed, alfalfa and grasses high in omega-3 fatty acids will cause the animals to burp less; those burps, made of intestinal methane, are the diary industry’s biggest greenhouse gas contributors. About 2 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas production comes from the dairy industry.
"It was pretty shocking to me that just being organic wasn't enough, actually,” Coventry Valley Farm dairy farmer Kristen Dellert told the Associated Press. “I really thought that here we're organic, we're doing what we need to do for the planet, we're doing the stuff for the soil and I really thought that was enough.”
Stonyfield first analyzed its contribution to global warming in the late 1990s and found the single biggest source of greenhouse gas was cow gas, mostly from the front end. The company funded energy audits on farms and research on small manure digesters so farmers could produce energy from methane gas. To reduce the enteric emissions, aka burps, Stonyfield followed its majority owner <a title="Group Danone of France" href="http://www.danone.com/home.php?>Group Danone of France, who was changing the cow’s diet.
Since January, Coventry Valley Farm has reduced its cows' belches by 13 percent. At another farm, they've gone down 18 percent. Dellert added the cows’ coats are shinier and they've had fewer foot problems and no stomach ailments.