Fuzzy Science Alert: Cows Pollute More Than Cars

(Sacramento, CA) With the latest announcement from the California envirocracy, the price of milk is sure to go up.

From The Mercury-News:

Dairies are the No. 1 source of smog-producing pollution in the San Joaquin Valley, producing more than even cars and light trucks, according to a report released by air regulators.

The San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, in a report released Monday, has determined that a cow annually emits 19.3 pounds of volatile organic compounds, the gases that contribute to smog. That is 50 percent more than currently thought, the report said.

At that new rate, dairies in the San Joaquin Valley produce more than 50 tons of VOCs a day, exceeding the amount released by cars and light trucks in the region by nearly 20 tons a day, district officials said.

If I believed that this is a good idea, which I don't, then I'd also believe that it surely was a wise act to slaughter all the hundreds of millions of bison that used to roam the Great Plains. Just think of the level of volatile organic compounds emanating from their exhaust pipes. And what about the massive herds of caribou in Canada? Or wildebeest in the Serengeti? Shouldn't they be slaughtered, or culled, or taxed?

The country of New Zealand instituted a similar nanny-state scheme to tax flatulence of livestock a couple years ago and it was met with vigorous opposition from the sheep herders. I think the idea was ultimately shelved or ameliorated.

Nevertheless, the pollution control district relied solely on data from Great Britain and a feedlot in Texas to conclude that California dairymen needed more government regulation.

"We've been cautioning them that a large component of their estimate is something for which there was very little California data," said Charles Krauter, a researcher at California State University-Fresno.

Michael Marsh, head of Western United Dairymen, said his group will ask the district's Governing Board to review the findings.

"If they don't and our farmers are caught being forced to rely upon on an emission factor for regulation that's not based on science, we will, of course, review all our legal options," he said.

I tend to believe that oftentimes problems with the environment have less to do with the actual conditions and more to do with the number of agenda-driven biologists out to find data to support their preconceived notions. At first glance, the 'cows pollute more than cars' contention appears to one of those notions.