“Producing a little more than 2 pounds of beef causes more greenhouse-gas emissions than driving a car for three hours and uses up more energy than leaving your house lights on for the same period of time.” According to a 2006 report put out by the United Nations, animals raised for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world…combined. If that isn’t a big enough hint as to what change needs to happen, I don’t know what is. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the American meat industry produced more than 1.4 billion tons of waste in 1997—five tons for every U.S. citizen and 130 times the volume of human waste. Some farms have realized their carbon footprint and not wanted to sacrifice their farms or their way of life.
The “latter method” has been adopted by several Vermont dairy farms and works well. Cow manure is stored in the digesters (huge tanks) at 100 degrees Fahrenheit and deprived of oxygen. That encourages the bacteria to break the manure down, releasing biogas that is 90 percent methane. This fuel is captured and burned in an engine to generate electricity. Unfortunately, the equipment is expensive, starting at $200,000 up to $1 million, depending on the size of the digester needed for the farm. Only 32 farms in the U.S. were using digesters as of 2009, so only a tiny amount of methane production has been mitigated in this way.
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4264
http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=144
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