||| FROM JACQUELYN JIMENEZ ROMERO for WASHINGTON STATE STANDARD |||
The latest beef in Olympia? Cow burps, farts, and poops. Washington lawmakers are considering a bill that seeks to gather better data on the scale and scope of methane emissions released by dairies and feedlots in the state.
House Bill 1630 is sponsored by Rep. Lisa Parshley, D-Olympia, who was previously a veterinarian and has a Ph.D. in biochemistry. The bill received a hearing in the House Environment & Energy Committee on Thursday.
“I think data is a very good way to do policy,” Parshley said. “If you don’t have data, you’re making policy based on assumption.”
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and 37% of methane emissions from human activity come from livestock and agriculture practices, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
During a cow’s digestive process, when food breaks down, it produces methane, which cows emit when they belch or fart. Methane can come from manure as well. Like other greenhouse gases, these emissions can contribute to global warming.
“Monitoring is not going to be looking at individual cows’ farts [or burps], I’m going to call it out because that’s what I’ve been hearing it called,” Parshley said. “We’re not going to ask farms to put things around the cows to measure how much they’re emitting from methane.”
Even so, it may prove challenging to pass this gas-related legislation.
The bill has received explosive opposition from farmers and Republicans, who worry about the burden of data collection. Critics also question whether it’s a step toward taxing cow toots and adding clean air regulations for dairies and cattle operations.
“As a farmer, I’m unsure on how to calculate emissions as farm practices vary greatly across our state, from feed to manure management,” said Leann Krainick, a farmer from Krainick Dairy Farms in Enumclaw.
“Putting a number on this effort would be inequitable,” Krainick added.
However, Parshley said that new techniques developed by the EPA and others would mean dairy farms or feedlots would only have to report the number of cows they have once a year, and what kind of manure process they’re using to estimate the methane levels.
There are also concerns that if the methane reported exceeds certain amounts, farmers could become subject to the state’s Climate Commitment Act, which requires companies to buy allowances for their air pollution.
Committee staff couldn’t provide a definitive answer as to whether that would be the case. The climate law currently excludes dairy farms and feedlots.
Parshley said the data her bill seeks to gather could help to guide where the state goes from here on the issue of livestock methane emissions. “If that data says this is not significant, we just monitor. If [the data] says it’s significant, it will help us build accurate policy,” Parshley said.
Looking ahead, she said she hopes to build a policy that works toward limiting and capturing the methane because it could financially benefit farmers.
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero is a Murrow News Fellow with the Washington State Standard. She has previously covered the state legislature in 2024 as an intern with The Seattle Times and has also interned in Samoa at the Samoa Observer and at The News Tribune and WA Latino News covering Latino issues in Washington state. She was one of five students nationwide chosen to be a part of ProPublica’s Class of 2023 Emerging Reporters and most recently graduated from the University of Washington in August 2024.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. is a Murrow News Fellow with the Washington State Standard. She has previously covered the state legislature in 2024 as an intern with The Seattle Times and has also interned in Samoa at the Samoa Observer and at The News Tribune and WA Latino News covering Latino issues in Washington state. She was one of five students nationwide chosen to be a part of ProPublica’s Class of 2023 Emerging Reporters and most recently graduated from the University of Washington in August 2024.
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Burps and farts? You might want to table that discussion until you fix the Parental Rights and Men competing in women’s sports. Children are not equiped to make decisions on health or legal issues. Men cause serious injuries to women and do not have any right to play in women sports. I’d like to know how you are going to rectify these two issues because they run contrary to voter’s preferences 80% to 20%.. WT HECK IS GOING ON WITH YOU PEOPLE?
From UC Davis:
“A bit of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions from beef cattle as much as 82 percent, according to new findings from researchers at the University of California, Davis. The results, published March 17, 2021 in the journal PLOS ONE, could pave the way for the sustainable production of livestock throughout the world.
“We now have sound evidence that seaweed in cattle diet is effective at reducing greenhouse gases and that the efficacy does not diminish over time,” said Ermias Kebreab, professor and Sesnon Endowed Chair of the Department of Animal Science and director of the World Food Center. Kebreab conducted the study along with his Ph.D. graduate student Breanna Roque.
“This could help farmers sustainably produce the beef and dairy products we need to feed the world,” Roque added.
Over the course of five months last summer, Kebreab and Roque added scant amounts of seaweed to the diet of 21 beef cattle and tracked their weight gain and methane emissions. Cattle that consumed doses of about 80 grams (3 ounces) of seaweed gained as much weight as their herd mates while burping out 82 percent less methane into the atmosphere. Kebreab and Roque are building on their earlier work with dairy cattle, which was the world’s first experiment reported that used seaweed in cattle. “
How about every one in Washington government track their spending, track their gas usage, track their private planes or jet usage, track spending on teaching actually schooling (math, reading science and writing) rather then the pushing of sterilization for children in reducing population, rather that this agenda. Over 21 years old do what ever you want… but leave children alone.
Or better yet if children can make their own medical decisions open up the age of smoking, drinking and Marijuana to 5 year olds and up. I know that sounds just as stupid because the side arguing to mutilation of children are horrified in think children are not old enough to drink and do drugs, yet making life alternative decisions is right up their cognitive development… shut up… honestly
The initiatives that are up to vote on in Washington state are ridiculous, shameful and are hurting our state.
Like the change in names of sexual predators to youngly attracted… what when do we protect the villain? OH that’s right we do that in Washington. FYI look up McNeil Island to see how much money is spent to keep deviant pedophiles alive after creating more victims.
Monitoring cow fates and burps is just another way for the government to spend money in the wrong way.
So call it part of the green initiative and it flies…
Nope so ridiculous.. but by all means keep voting for these crazy people…
Such a proud moment in our history…. could this be why victimization is increasing, homelessness is increasing, drug and alcohol addiction is increasing and we are not doing much about it…. because we are pay to study farts….
Brilliant
I have a friend who wrote a book about this, Dairy Farming in the 21st Century by Bruce Scholten, , and if science shows that seaweed can help, why not? Not worthy of such ridicule
If the study information provided by Janet from UC Davis is even partially correct, it would be a MAJOR global warming possible breakthrough. It seems almost too good to be true.
It should cost a relatively minuscule amount funding to verify this.
Global warming is the greatest threat to human long term survival rivaled only by exponential population growth, and bovine gas is known to be a significant contributor.
It might be more effective to monitor the hot air coming out of Olympia…
Too many people, too many cattle. The beef industry has become a too big to fail industry involving an unhealthy to eat product that requires a massive amount of deforestation, water, and is fed on pesticide dependent crops mainly to benefit Macdonalds.
They should do a similar study on people.