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What you don’t see on your plate: greenhouse gas emissions from global livestock supply chainsBy animal products, in billion tonnes equivalent carbon dioxideFAOmanure for non-feed crops,1.4 million tonnes nitrogenpost-farm transportand processing0.2slaughter by-productsdraft, fibre andmanure used as fuel0.4livestockproduction3.5beef2.97.0cattle milk1.4feedproduction3.3sheep and goatsbuffalo milk and meat0.40.6non-feed productschicken meatchicken eggspigmeat0.70.40.2the plant root systems should be allowed to developundisturbed. Cattle do indeed belch methane:beef and dairy farmers are often blamed becausetheir animals produce 28 percent of this particularlyclimate-damaging gas. But nearly all this gascan be bound in the soil if the cattle are grazed onpasture. And these animals should not be givencereals or soybeans as supplemental feed. A cowfed this way does not produce as much meat perhectare as one fed on concentrates, but the costto the environment in terms of greenhouse gasemissions is much lower.Teams of scientists are trying to find ways toreduce livestock’s impact on the climate. TheFrench research company Valorex has replacedthe common diet of maize and soy-based concentrateswith one composed of lucerne (alfalfa),linseed and grass. The result was a 20 percentdecrease in the methane content of the bovineburps. And scientists of the Aberystwyth Universityin Wales think they can halve the methaneemissions of cows by mixing garlic into the feed:it attacks the microorganisms in the gut that producemethane.A cocktail of gases: Climate change from field and stallBy category of emission, percentFAObeefpoultrycow milkpigseggsmanure, applied and deposited, N 2O land use change: soybean, CO 2digestion, CH 4feed, CO 2expansion, CO 2manure management, N 2Ofertilizer and crop residues, N 2Oland use change: pasturemanure management, CH 4direct and indirectenergy, CO 2post-farm, CO 2MEAT ATLAS35