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Climate change: Pledge to cut emissions from dairy farms
11 March 2019 259
GETTY IMAGES
A dairy firm is pledging to make its operations carbonneutral from cow to supermarket
by 2050, including more than 2,000 farms in the UK.
This will require "radical changes" over the coming decades, including developing new
technologies, the dairy cooperative, Arla Foods, said.
It admitted the target was "ambitious", but said it was achievable.
However, the Vegan Society said there was no way to make dairy a climatefriendly product.
Gases which help to heat the atmosphere and contribute to climate change are a byproduct of
the dairy industry.
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They include direct emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from cows, and carbon
dioxide and nitrous oxide from the likes of packaging, transportation and fertilisers.
Arla, the largest farming cooperative in Europe, said it aimed to neutralise all the CO2 produced
by the dairy farms of its 10,300 members.
This would involve improvements in the supply chain to offset unavoidable emissions, it said.
"It's an ambitious target, but if everyone works together then it's possible," said Kari Dunford, an
Arla member, who dairy farms 250 cows in Somerset.
"There are 2,000 Arla farmers in the UK and if we all do our little bit then it's all going to make a
difference."
GETTY IMAGES
The company said it had cut the amount of CO2 emissions from production and packaging by
more than 20%.
It also said that, on farms, the CO2 emissions per kilo of milk have been reduced by almost a
quarter over the last 20 years, and it was trialling new technologies for farms, such as producing
clean energy from manure.
Commenting on the pledge, Joseph Poore of the University of Oxford said it was not clear what
emissions would be included in the target.
"If it's just carbon dioxide, this is a very minimal target," he said. "If they are including methane,
nitrous oxide, and feed production which are dairy's main emissions as well as tackling
dairy's other environmental issues, then this is ambitious. Meeting it would set a new
benchmark."
Will Gildea of the Vegan Society said there was "no way to make dairy a climatefriendly
product".
"Cows produce large amounts of methane, a very damaging gas for our planet," he said.
"Methane emissions pack a huge punch and warm the planet in the nearterm, meaning they
could trigger runaway climate change."
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