Cattle and garlic. How a Natural Change in Eating Habits can Help the Environment.

    Livestock farts a lot. Cows and other cattle account for 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions releasing millions of tons of the potent methane each year. An easy solution (besides starting mass vegetarianism which is less probable) to this could be feeding cattle a bunch of garlic and oats, which are known to kill the methane-producing stomach bacteria that cause deadly flatulence. This could cut the stinky emissions as much as a quarter so these new diets could reduce to 3% the greenhouse responsibility that cattle has.

    There were serious researches run by Aberystwyth, Bangor and Reading universities measuring the amount of methane burped out by farm animals in specially designed polytunnels. Still, it’s admitted there could be side effects as scientists still work out how much of an effect the garlic extract has on the actual taste of beef and milk. Scientists are looking at other kinds of garlic metabolites which would achieve the same effect, but without this downside.

    Despite this unwanted side effect, there could also be two other positive side effects: thanks to these new diets the profits of farmers could improve as it's believed the new feeds could also improve beef production and boost milk yield, also the garlic industry worldwide would expand several times. The environment wins and the economies win as well...

Source

Rupp, Rebecca. "How Garlic May Save the World." The Plate How Garlic May Save the World Comments. National Geographic, 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. <http://goo.gl/xC4BQe>