Cow Emission Update

So it's the cows! They must secure permits or be removed from the San Joaquin Valley Air Basin:

To Mitloehner's surprise, the first results from that study show the presence of smog-causing compounds dropped significantly after the cows left the chamber, even though they left fresh manure behind.

"We thought it was the waste that would lead to the majority of emissions, but it seemed to have been the animals," he said.

The chief offender appears to be the ruminating process. After a cow eats, the food is briefly deposited in its bathtub-sized stomach. There it mixes with bacteria, begins to break down and produces methane, a greenhouse gas. About 20 minutes later, the food comes up again as cud. As the cow chews it, the methane is released into the air. The process also emits methanol and ethanol, both VOCs.

For some in the industry, the results indicate that dairy farmers who may be forced to mitigate pollution may be trying to fight nature.

"Is this something that we really want to do, try to regulate a living thing?" said J.P. Cativiela, a program coordinator for Dairy CARES, an industry-funded environmental group. "All living things have emissions, plants, animals, even, people. It absolutely makes sense to regulate the industrial part of a dairy. Are we really seriously talking about regulating animals?"