« The binding | Main | A victory for pluralism »
December 8, 2005
Cows have noisy bowels
Treehugger reports on a new food additive (based on fumaric acid)for cows that decreases their methane production by 70%. Animal flatulence of methane, especially the large number of domesticated ruminating (cud chewing) herbivores used by humans for food, make up the vast majority of these animal emissions. Ruminating animals have bacteria in their guts which they use to process cellulose into sugars. Fumaric acid is used by cells to produce energy from food, and used in the manufacture of polyester resins and polyhydric alcohols. It is speculated that this works by increasing digestive efficiency by decreasing pH in the animal's stomach.
Posted by OneEyedMan at December 8, 2005 10:23 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)