The largest meat and dairy companies emit nearly as much methane as the European Union

More powerful than carbon dioxide, methane emitted from manure, but also during the ruminant digestion stage, is a major greenhouse gas. If it has a lifetime in the atmosphere of about twelve years, this gas is responsible for 25% of the warming since the pre-industrial era. At the last COP 27, a commitment was made to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. In 2021, the topic was already on the table at this UN meeting since a “global agreement on methane” was signed by 103 countries in the start . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that it will be necessary to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 with the hope of limiting temperature rise by 0.3°C in 2040, and up to 0.8°C at the end of the century.

However, according to the results of a report by L’Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy And the Changing Markets Foundation, efforts should not be made only by countries. Five large meat and ten multinational dairy companies have more methane than Australia, Russia or Canada. If we consider only methane emissions from the activity of the world’s meat-producing juggernaut, the American multinational corporation JBS known for its giant slaughterhouses in Chicago, it exceeds methane emissions from livestock in France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand combined.

In the land of the kiwis specifically, anger is building among farmers who fear the tax on cow farts proposed in the bill. The New Zealand government aims to reduce methane emissions by 20% with this measure.

However, ruminant digestion symptoms are not the only source of methane. Fertilizer also releases it and forms a pollutant when its nitrates and ammonia reach the ground or air.