The Curious Case for Defending Agriculture:  Carbon Emissions and Climate Change

April, 2020
 Jonael Bosques, UF/IFAS Extension Hardee County, Wauchula

Florida enjoys a strategic place when it comes to growing food for the world. We are home to world-class beaches and buzzling cities. Every year millions of visitors come to Florida to escape from their daily realities immersing themselves in long lines to ride roller coasters, enjoy awesome food, or spend a day sunbathing while listening to the relaxing sound of gentle gulf waves touching our shores. While they are here, they open their wallets and leave their savings for our businesses to sustain themselves. Our produce, meat and orange juice travels up the road to be served at their tables, where they enjoy the fruits of our labor without thinking about the sweat equity that each fork of steak or glass of milk carries with them.

For the rest of us, we call Florida home. This is where our children are being raised; where we go to church, and where we want to spend the rest of our days in peace. The rural Florida we love is now under the scope of many that have a minimal understanding of how we take care of the land, our animals, and how we manage our resources.

 

Cattle and the environment

Our Florida lands have been grazed by cattle for more than 500 years. There is a growing trend that wrongly points the finger at animal agriculture for being the major contributor of carbon in the atmosphere, thus causing climate change, but the science does not hold up. The Environmental Protection Agency states that the whole agricultural industry in the US only accounts for 9% of these gasses. Carbon release from meat and dairy production accounts for 2% of the total emissions produced in the United States, but the way cattle emit carbon is in the form of methane (CH4). Methane is the main component in natural gas. It is the result of a process called enteric fermentation (where rumen or gut bacteria break down sugars in plants that have been ingested by the cow, goat, deer, or other ruminant), a now politicized subject of the climate change debate, and basis for the “cow farts” debate. Interestingly, methane gas is not released by cows from the rear exit, but from belching (burping). 

Methane according to the National Academies of Science, has a short lifespan of close to 9 years but traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. From here CH4 is converted into CO2 and water, and now it traps heat at a lower rate.  Interestingly farmers and ranchers have greatly improved the way we select and feed cattle drastically reducing the number of animals emitting greenhouse gases, while maintaining the same level of production. These changes have made beef and dairy 129% more efficient when compared to the way animal protein was produced 70 years ago. Efficient communication of these positive impacts to our “non-agricultural” friends needs to happen, and this is where you can contribute. Moreover, swine and poultry produce far less gases (0.02%) due to the intensiveness of their production practices and waste management. If you forget all of the numbers above, please remember this: if we all decide to eliminate animal products from our diet, this will only reduce our total greenhouse emissions by 2%.

 

Cows contribute to sequestering carbon

Even though cattle contribute with 175 million metric tons per year of CO2 equivalents from CH4 to the atmosphere, this number is miniscule when it comes to the amount produced by the transportation sector (1.1 billion metric tons per year). From this piece of the greenhouse gas pie, a great portion of this carbon gets sequestered (or trapped) in grasslands across Florida and the United States through the biological activity of plants. Carbon sequestration is defined as the process of transferring CO2 from the atmosphere into the soil. Farmers and ranchers are working hard every day to boost yields (which in turn boosts CO2 sequestration) by adopting better practices in the areas of soil fertility, efficient irrigation, and adequate grazing lands management.

 

More than carbon and Climate Change

Our farmers and ranchers need you to tell the story of how they have implemented science-based best management practices to reduce nutrient runoff that can affect the water quality and quantity of our rivers, estuaries and coastal ecosystems. Farmers and ranchers also manage sensitive areas that house indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, burrowing owls, songbirds, and other native endangered critters. Farm families are the ones often managing invasive species in conjunction with governmental agencies to help preserve their chunk of dirt for the next generation. As an agricultural educator, I encourage you dear reader to provide some context to those out there that get their information from shockumentaries (one-sided documentaries aimed at causing negative impressions on viewers), social media posts and other outlets that instill constant fear through misleading headlines. After all, only 2% of our population oversees the production of the food and fiber while the rest of us gets to enjoy the safest and most economic nourishment chain in the world. These soil-loving souls are the ones working 20-hour days, gambling with mother nature while juggling their family life. Meanwhile we hop on our hybrid car and stop at our favorite café drive-through to get our non-fat soy lattes on our way to the grocery store to reap the harvest of their labor.

 

Don't bash Ag:  Become and AGvocate

Yes, it is true. Agriculture contributes to the greenhouse gas production. It is also true that we have always led the way in adopting science-based practices that makes us more efficient when it comes to managing our resources, protecting our lands, and feeding our people. We need you, dear reader to tell the positive story with real facts, not just made up numbers. We have the power to influence our friends and neighbors and engage in positive conversations that promote the livelihood of many families that call Hardee County home. We will continue talking about the way agriculture benefits our community and how our farmers and ranchers are committed in environmental stewardship practices hopefully in our next column. If you have further questions on this or any other agriculture-related topic, please give us a call at 863-773-2164, or come by the UF/IFAS Extension Hardee County office located at 507 Civic Center Drive, Wauchula. We are here to help.

 

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