Right.

We have to, we have to do our bit, okay? And so I wanna be very clear about that.

Also, uh, when I'm about to talk about methane, I don't want that to be misunderstood as saying, "Oh, these new findings-" shed a different light on methane and so we can now relax.

Uh, that's not my intent, but my intent is to first explain why methane is different and why the difference that we see in this gas, um, make it not just a liability if we ignore it, but it can actually be an asset if we manage it right.

And so let me explain why and how.

So the number one greenhouse gas in the world is CO2, carbon dioxide, and it's the result largely of humans burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas.

Oil, coal, and gas originally used to be plants and animals such as dinosaurs.

Right.

Mm-hmm

... or feed additives that you can feed to animals to reduce the methane they belch out, and so on.

So the nature of my job is, um, to work with these companies that provide technologies to reduce emissions, um, to get us to a point where our agricultural sector is more sustainable on the environmental side.

And so yes, the CLEAR Center works with agriculture.

That is in our...

That's our mission.

That's our vision, our mission to work with them, because they are the ones that need to reduce emissions.

Right.

What would you say to someone who is battling with that thought?

So there's no doubt that food production, like any other human activity, will contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and to a warming planet.

And when I say food production, within food production, ruminant livestock production in particular is a main contributor of the food contributing sectors.

But if we... discuss the impact of animal agriculture on climate, then we should use data that pertain to our place here, the United States.

In the United States, of all greenhouse gases that are produced in total by all sources, the livestock sector contributes a total of 4% of all greenhouse gases.

4%.

The fossil fuel sectors, so cars, trucks, trains, planes, ships, factories, and so on, produce about two-thirds of all greenhouse gases.

How can we work together with them from a producer side or just a person in the agriculture industry to form a common ground, I would say?

Frank?

Yeah, it really depends on where we're talking.

So I live in California, and in California where we have more intensively housed animals, manure management is number one, and here particularly the use of anaerobic digesters.

Feed additives is also important.

But here under your conditions in New Zealand where you have more grazing animals, it might come down more to breeding.

There is now knowledge about methane being a heritable trait.

So it's passed on from the mom to the offspring.

You're a big fan of using a carrot, not a stick, when it comes to farming.