According to climate change activists, cow farts, specifically the methane gas they release, contribute to global warming primarily due to the potent greenhouse effect of methane. While cows do release methane through their flatulence, a larger portion of methane emissions from cattle comes from their burps.
When cows digest their food, they produce methane as a byproduct of the digestion process. The methane gas is then released when the cows belch or pass gas.
According to climate change alarmists, methane has around 28 times the heat-trapping capability of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period and about 84 times the capability over a 20-year period. This means that even though the amount of methane emitted by cows is smaller than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by human activities, it allegedly has a more significant impact on global warming in the short term.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) claims that livestock, including beef and dairy cattle, contribute about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions and that cow farts and burps contribute to this. Progressives insist that reducing methane emissions from cows and other livestock is an important part of mitigating global warming.
In addition, environmentalists are protesting the land necessary for farms and raising livestock.
But New York City Mayor Eric Adams is on the case.
It’s a puzzler, as there aren’t many cows in New York City, but the mayor seeks to reduce his city’s food-related carbon emissions over the next seven years by 33%, with a targeted focus on red meat. “Food impacts everything,” Adams told the Daily News. “It impacts our physical health, our mental health, our way of life, and today we are saying to New Yorkers, and really to the globe, that it impacts our planet.”
His solution is to force school children and sick patients in hospitals to eat plant-based alternatives and continue his “Meatless Mondays” along with “Plant-Powered Fridays” initiatives in public schools. The commitment is a continuation of then-mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2021 promises and programs designed to reduce New York City’s food-based emissions by 25% by 2030.
But kids and sick people aren’t the only ones who will suffer. Mayor Adams recently introduced the Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge, urging private, institutional, and nonprofit sector leaders to reduce their food-based emissions by 25 percent by 2030. Even Riker’s Island prisoners will be suffering from this cruel and unusual deterrent, perhaps meant as another way to deter crime without actively stopping it.
New York City spends an estimated $300 million annually buying food for prisoners, public school students, and for its hospital patients. Experts believe that the city’s food purchases produce as much carbon as the exhaust from more than 70,000 gas-fueled cars each year.
It’s estimated that even a small serving of beef is catastrophic, according to Richard Larrick, a professor of management at Duke University. “To have 20 grams of protein from beef — that’s kind of a meal’s serving of protein, is like burning a gallon of gasoline. Everything else is less than a fifth of a gallon, essentially.”
Adams explains, “It is easy to talk about emissions that are coming from vehicles and how it impacts our carbon footprint, it is easy to talk about the emissions that are coming from buildings and how it impacts our environment, But we now have to talk about beef. And I don’t know if people are really ready for this conversation.”
It’s important to remember that Adams does not come to this with an unbiased view. His battle with diabetes convinced him that plant-based foods are a healthy alternative to tasty, delicious foods like meats. His book, “Healthy at Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses,” details his personal journey of overcoming type 2 diabetes through changes in his diet and lifestyle. He advocates for a plant-based diet to improve health and combat chronic illnesses, and now, apparently, to save the world from cow farts and belches.
But he’s not alone in his tyrannical anti-cow stance. He has the backing of other progressive climate change enthusiasts, like New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “Ensuring New Yorkers eat nutritious foods and have access to them is key to their overall health, but it should not come at the cost of harming our environment,” Vasan noted. “Reducing consumption-based emissions and encouraging people to adopt more plant-based foods is a win-win. This will help improve our air quality and help prevent the several chronic diseases that affect so many New Yorkers unnecessarily.”
The war on cows is one part of a larger climate change plan for the city. Adams committed to a $700 million “climate hub campus” on Governor’s Island, designed exclusively to research climate change and scheduled to open in 2028. He also passed legislation requiring residents to separate all food waste from regular recycling and waste disposal along with sweeping climate laws affecting the construction of new buildings that have hampered construction throughout New York City.
In a city rife with homelessness, high taxes, and crime, it’s good to know what is considered a priority for Adams. There is always room for shoplifting and carjackings, but cows will need to moo-ve over to save the world from the perils of bovine farts and belches in New York City.
Is chili the next target for Adams?
