Click video player to the left to see how one farmer is managing his cattle and land to help lock carbon into the soil (you can enlarge video player)

Can cows help stop climate change?

Ed Hamer

15th September, 2009

Meat, dairy... in fact, livestock in general has in recent years joined the ranks of the 4x4 and the short-haul flight. But could a change in the way we graze animals not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but even remove them from the atmosphere?

The next time you look over a hedgerow and see a herd of cows contentedly grazing a field, you may be forgiven for thinking you are witnessing one of the world’s number one climate criminals in action.

With a reputation for producing an estimated 33 million tonnes of greenhouse-gases (GHG’S) each year - a staggering 13 per cent of the world’s total emissions - it is not surprising that our bovine friends have belched and farted their way to the top of such an unenviable hit-list.

What you may not be aware of however is that this pastoral scene could just be at the forefront of one of the most radical and ingenious solutions to climate change.

Grazing ahead

Among the weird and wonderful initiatives put forward for saving the planet at the Guardian Manchester International Festival - which included carbon-mortgages, energy-bonds and the creative prospect of cloud-making ships - a single proposal on soil-carbon sequestration, given by Tony Lovell from the Soil Carbon Institute of Australia, received an overwhelming response due to the sheer...

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