Milk, the Media and Global Warming...apparently

Yesterday, while out and about in the car, I listened to a very long discussion on the radio about a proposed plan that if we switched to UHT milk, this would improve our carbon footprint, be better for the environment and so on.

The BBC made quite a deal of it, interviewing a dairy farmer opposed to it, there was a phone in, they were also quoting UHT market share in other countries, you name it.

At one point I remarked to the other half that it must be a no news day for them to make so much a big deal about an apparent DEFRA study - and surely this was never a plan that was going to leave the ground....After all it should be pretty obvious to everyone that UHT milk does not require refrigeration and this has the potential to save supermarkets some money - not exactly ground breaking stuff.

Now this supposed plan has been strongly denied by the Government (Thank God, as it was completely BARMY imho!!)

I do wonder about the power of the media at times - to make such an event out of this story the way they did yesterday...did anyone else see or hear about it?



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7044693.stm

We are basically controlled by a media who have stopped reporting news in preference of making it. Terrible situation.

When I saw it on the telly I just thought, if this is about the environment, there are surely much bigger, more immediate changes that can be made. Rather than getting the nation to drink that ****. Silly season seems to last most of the year these days.

yep it was ridiculous...especially the claims of cutting methane in the air from cows' burps....discussion centred around changing the living conditions of cows and their diets etc...now surely the simple answer would be for MAN to change his diet and eat significantly less bloody cow in the first place.....!!

If we all bought UHT milk then a lot less would be wasted. We'd need fewer dairy cows to produce the milk (because less would be thrown away). Those cows would produce less methane because there would be fewer of them.

The reduction in energy usage that goes into the refridgerated supply chain would also have a positive impact.

I drink a lot of UHT - but then I drink skimmed and no matter what you do to that stuff it tastes the same. Personally I wouldn't see this as a major hardship and would happily give up fresh milk for the benefits.

It won't be consumers that will block this - it will be the supermarkets. They NEED milk to go off so that consumers have to rush round to the shops for a few pints and whilst they are there, pick up a load of other things they didn't really need.

I'm all for cutting food wastage and I think this is a pretty good step in the right direction.

I hadn't thought about the methane argument, sure I read somewhere that methane from the sheer number of cows on the planet is FAR worse than the fumes from cars.....

As a non milk consumer does hat mean my carbon footprint is better than I thought? Mybe the supermarkets need to save money as they are about to be fined for price fixing and collusion in the milk market which cost consumers £240m. Doubt that will make such big news after all supermarkets are also advertisers.

helencbradshaw wrote:

Yesterday, while out and about in the car, I listened to a very long discussion on the radio about a proposed plan that if we switched to UHT milk, this would improve our carbon footprint, be better for the environment and so on.

The BBC made quite a deal of it, interviewing a dairy farmer opposed to it, there was a phone in, they were also quoting UHT market share in other countries, you name it.

At one point I remarked to the other half that it must be a no news day for them to make so much a big deal about an apparent DEFRA study - and surely this was never a plan that was going to leave the ground....After all it should be pretty obvious to everyone that UHT milk does not require refrigeration and this has the potential to save supermarkets some money - not exactly ground breaking stuff.

Now this supposed plan has been strongly denied by the Government (Thank God, as it was completely BARMY imho!!)

I do wonder about the power of the media at times - to make such an event out of this story the way they did yesterday...did anyone else see or hear about it?



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7044693.stm

I heard it and thought it was barmy too...the bad thing is that once a discussion report such as this is highlighted then people start thinking that it is government policy, which it is not.

UHT tastes awful and I don't think people will ever be persuaded to change, I'm also not sure how valid the saving would be, there are plenty of other things like excess packaging and the sourcing of products form around the world instead of locally which could more easily and less controversially be addressed and have much more of an impact on carbon emissions.

Yes UHT is foul - how can they expect everyone to drink that muck.

If they did switch Id buy a cow for my fresh milk and keep it in the yard

atticusuk wrote:

As a non milk consumer does hat mean my carbon footprint is better than I thought? Mybe the supermarkets need to save money as they are about to be fined for price fixing and collusion in the milk market which cost consumers £240m. Doubt that will make such big news after all supermarkets are also advertisers.

nope, your carbon footprint will be what you measure it to be...!!!

I dont drink milk either as it happens, so no hardship for me whatever BBC Radio decide is latest government policy....

However if milk is shipped half way across the country, to be treated then shipped back to supermarkets as it is at the moment this to me is crazy..as is suggesting changing the cows diets to combat methane - a bigger human shift to a vegetarian diet would be the only thing that will reduce that significantly - and is better land use also (so actually helping to reduce the country's auld footprint) Or shift to more local production and treatment...and reduce the foodmiles and transportation costs...


I suggest we lobby to close all Mcdonald restaurants - that'll solve it

WormThatTurned wrote:

Yes UHT is foul - how can they expect everyone to drink that muck.

If they did switch Id buy a cow for my fresh milk and keep it in the yard

and you would be responsible for a hole in the ozone layer above yorkshire, directly above your cow's farts...

helencbradshaw wrote:

WormThatTurned wrote:

Yes UHT is foul - how can they expect everyone to drink that muck.

If they did switch Id buy a cow for my fresh milk and keep it in the yard

and you would be responsible for a hole in the ozone layer above yorkshire, directly above your cow's farts...

His are bad enough

Cows farts ? Ozone layer ?

Am I missing something

WormThatTurned wrote:

Cows farts ? Ozone layer ?

Am I missing something

Livestock counts for 85% of the methane produced in the world. Methane accounts for 50% of harmful gasses causing global warming.

So yes, cow farts are a problem!

http://earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

The other big contributor for methane is rotting food in landfill sites. That's why it's so important to try to buy only what you need and can eat in a reasonable time. Composting your waste veg is fine but other rotting food is really rather nasty.

drewboy wrote:

WormThatTurned wrote:

Cows farts ? Ozone layer ?

Am I missing something

Livestock counts for 85% of the methane produced in the world. Methane accounts for 50% of harmful gasses causing global warming.

So yes, cow farts are a problem!

http://earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

We should all stop eating beef then....

First you should stop producing cattle raised for beef, then once the current supply has been consumed people should stop eating beef.

Mauri wrote:

We should all stop eating beef then....

and therein lies the answer....

drewboy wrote:

Livestock counts for 85% of the methane produced in the world. Methane accounts for 50% of harmful gasses causing global warming.

So yes, cow farts are a problem!

[url=http://earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

http://earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm[/quote[/url]]

Ive heard it all now. You couldnt make it up

Can't remember where I read it, but apparently, cow farts are actually worse for the environment overall than cars!

http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/12882/livestock-a-major-contributor-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions


If you count in changes in land use, and the resulting loss of a carbon sink plus the emissions in the total industry then yes that seems entirely likely. But not just the farts..