Global Warming: Methane

Emission from Live Stock

Agriculture
In the last ten years or so, Global warming has
become a huge concern for United States and the world.
Many understand that carbon dioxide is the culprit
behind global warming; cars, factory, and power plants
are all a huge source of CO2. Despite the long standing
debate of the legitimacy of global warming, many action
has been taken against global warming. Greener cars and
cleaner factories were implemented. However, most
dont know that a gas called methane is actually causing
more harmful than carbon dioxide, and that modern
livestock agriculture is a huge culprit behind the emission
of methane gas.

By Qiwei Fu

of all greenhouse gas, facts provided by EPA tells us that

the 8% of methane gas is actually twice as heat trapping
as CO2. It is clear that even a small amount of methane
emission and pollution can have an enormous impact on
the environment. Pollution from agriculture suddenly
Table 1. As shown, a huge percentage comes from cattles

becomes something that cannot be ignored. The increase

of methane over the centuries requires immediate
attention needed to solve this issue.

Figure 1.Inside a factory farming cows.

Just how much more harmful is the methane gas to

the environment? According to the EPA (Environmental
Protection Agency), methane gas emission contribute to
8% of all greenhouse gas emission.(EPA, 2014) That
doesnt sound so bad until we learned that Methane
(CH4) is more than 20 times as effective as CO2 at
trapping heat in the atmosphere (IPCC 1996). Over the
last two hundred and fifty years, the concentration of
CH4 in the atmosphere increased by 151 percent (IPCC
2007).(EPA, 2014) Considering that CO2 make up 82%

Interestingly enough, general methane emission is

actually on a decreasing trend while methane emission
from agriculture is increasing. Doctor Deanne M.
Camara Ferreira in his academic article Global warming
and Agribusiness, states that Despite the 10% decline in
U.S. methane emissions from 1990 levels...
Improvements in animal diet, coupled with a retracting
bovine population in the U.S., have helped reduce
methane emissions from enteric fermentation from 1990
to 2004. Yet, during the same period, methane emissions
from manure management greatly increased (Ferreira,

2008). Ferreira brings to attention the fact that manure

management continues to increase despite the fact that
other form of methane pollution has decreased. Showing
a lack of action taken against manure management and
its impact on global warming. Data collected by EPA
regarding the increase of methane released by manure
management is quite shocking. EPA states that Methane
emissions from manure management increased by 68.0
percent since 1990, from 31.5 Tg CO2 in 1990 to 52.9 Tg
CO2 in 2012.(EPA, 2014) That is a frightening level of
increase in methane in just a few decades, reinforcing the
emergency that manure management is out of control and
action needs to be taken to reduce the amount of methane
emitted into the atmosphere.

Figure 2. Factory farms houses huge numbers of animals in miniscule

spaces.

To understand the reason behind the increase of

methane emission by the livestock agriculture industry,
we must first explore the background of United States
livestock agriculture industry. American animal farming
has undergone a huge evolution in the past century,
shifting from the traditional family owned farm to large
factory farm or CAFO (concentrated animal feeding
operation). A scholar from University of New Mexico
School of law, John Verhuel, stated in his academic
article Methane as a Greenhouse Gas that From
1900 to 2002, the number of farms decreased by 63
percent while the average farm size grew by 67
percent.(Verhuel, 2011)
Verhuel address the
phenomenon of increasingly denser farm over the
optimized for maximum amount of livestock it can
produce. However, this systematic way of producing
livestock must have its drawback, a higher level of
pollution due to the density of animals and the large
amount of waste they produce. Verhuel then discuss that
For an industry representing only 0.7 percent of the
GDP and 1.9 percent of the workforce, animal agriculture
as practiced today clearly contributes more than its share
of greenhouse gas emissions.(Verhuel, 2011) Verhuel

comment on the obscure negative correlation between a

small industry and the absurd amount of pollution it
cause despite its size. Verhuel presents his concern of the
disproportionally high amount of pollution that CAFO
produce and its impact on global warming as a
greenhouse gas contributor.
The reason that CAFO causes a large proportion of
methane emission is due to the method of manure
management that CAFO utilizes because of the lack of
physical space for manure to naturally decompose.
Verhuel summarize the cause of high level of methane in
CAFO as Because CAFOs have much less land area
than traditional farmsoften due to the lack of crops
and do not use the animal waste as fertilizer, much less
land is available to distribute the waste with not enough
land to absorb the waste.(Verhuel, 2011) Verhuel
explains that traditional farm where cows graze on grass
field and other crops can use the manure to fertilize the
land and its crops, thus maintaining a self-sustained
community where no energy is lost and converted to
methane. CAFO do not have the luxury of a traditional
farm, the large amount of manure produced by a large
number of livestock in a concentrated place calls for a
wet method of manure management. Verhuel further
explains that waste sits in the storage lagoons for
extended periods of time. Fermentation in these lagoons
has generated most of the increase in animal agriculture
methane emissions over the past two decades. (Verhuel,
2011)Verhuel suggests that the increase of CAFO and the
common practice of wet manure management replacing
the traditional farming in livestock agriculture is the key
reason that the methane emission is at a steady increase.
The high profit of CAFO results in the consequence of
high pollution.
Surprisingly enough, agriculture
pollution mostly goes undetected by the public.

Figure 3. Aerial view of a factory farm.

The practice of wet manure is very polluting, yet the

fact that is remains mostly unregulated is quite
concerning. In fact, Verhuel explains that because of the
Clean Air Act, The EPA thus has the authority and, in
fact, is required to list methane as a criteria pollutant.
(Verhuel, 2011) Despite EPAs power to regulate
methane emission from CAFOS, the tread has not
showed sign of slowing down. How is that possible? Juha
Siikamaki in the article Climate Change and U.S
Agriculture, explains that Extending mandatory
emissions-reduction requirements to agriculture would be
hampered by several challenges. Agricultural GHG
emissions are generally difficult to monitor and verify.
(Siikamaki, 2008) Siikamakis claim that the lack of
concrete way of recording the methane emission
potentially means that EPA does not actually have a way
to regulate the methane emission effectively despite the
power to do so lawfully. The lack of effective regulation
then allows CAFO corporations to find ways to and
loopholes to effectively dodge the methane requirement
completely, thus explaining the increasing methane
emission.

Figure 4. Effects of factory farming locally.

Siikamaki does propose a possible solution to give

CAFO self-incentives on reducing methane emission.
Siikamaki suggest that factories can capture the
methane and then burn the biogas to generate
electricity In addition, the electricity generated from
this activity replaces other forms of electricity
generation, using equally or more carbon intensive fossil
fuels. (Siikamaki, 2008) Siikamakis plan would greatly
reduce the emission of greenhouse gas by burning one
converting one byproduct (methane) into energy at the
same time replacing electricity generated by power plant

using fossil fuel, thus eliminating two pollutant at the

same time. Not to mention lowering the cost for CAFOS
due to self-sustaining energy from methane power
generation. Siikamakis suggestion gives CAFOS
incentives that regulation does not, and thus could be
very effective at reducing global warming due to
methane emission. In fact, there has been example of this
proposal already. Loyd Ray farm in North Carolina was
among one of the first farm to use manure as renewable
energy. Wendee Nichole in her article Pig power pays
off claims that analyses of the Loyd Ray experiment
show that electricity generated from swine waste is
competitive
in
the
renewable
energy
marketplace.(Nichole, 2014) Nicholes article supports
Siikamakis proposal to create renewable energy from
manure as a legitimate solution to methane emission
from manure management. Thus, paving a way to
prevent global warming from eliminating methane
emission from agriculture.
Eliminating methane from CAFO would be one
of the most effective way to reduce global warming.
Verhuel claims that Given the importance of early
mitigation, the relatively short atmospheric life of
methane, and the large quantity of it emitted by U.S.
animal agriculture, prompt EPA regulation of methane
from AFOs can have a significant positive impact on
climate change. (Verhuel, 2011) The combined strength
and EPA and self-incentive for livestock agriculture to
reduce methane output will be monumental to the fight
against global warming since methane is a huge
contributor. The low life time of methane will also ensure
that action taken against methane will see result fairly
soon, thus making it one of the most effective way to
reduce global warming.

Works Cited
Siikamki, Juha. "Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture:
Examining the Connections." Environment 50.4 (2008):
36-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Us Epa, Oar, Climate Change Division. "US GHG
Inventory 2014 Chapter Executive Summary." Inventory
of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2012
Executive Summary (2014): n. pag. Epa.gov. EPA.
Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Verhuel, John. "Methane as a Greenhouse Gas: Why the
EPA Should Regulate Emissions from Animal Feeding
Operations and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
Under the Clean Air Act." Natural Resources
Journal 51.1 (2011): 163-87. Legal Source. Web.21 Nov.
2014.
Ferreira, Deanne M. Camara. "Global Warming And
Agribusiness: Could Methane Gas From Dairy Cows
Spark The Next California Gold Rush?." Widener Law
Review 15.2 (2010): 541-577. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
NICOLE, WENDEE. "Pig Power Pays Off." Discover
35.2 (2014): 58-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21
Nov. 2014.