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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: coug who wrote (95774)	2/8/2005 11:40:10 AM
From: coug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Dairies may not pollute as much as thought By ALI BAY California Staff Writer abay@capitalpress.com DAVIS, Calif. – It’s about time Bessie got some good news. Researchers in California have released preliminary information showing that dairy cows produce only about half the amount of air pollution as was previously believed. The research could change the way dairies are regulated in the Golden State and beyond. “This is huge, very huge,” said Frank Mitloehner, a University of California at Davis air quality specialist who is in the process of conducting several different studies looking at the pollutants created by dairy cows. “We were all surprised by the findings.” Mitloehner’s research found that Bessie’s contribution to poor air quality comes not from her manure, but from chewing her cud and belching. “We know that there are gases produced in the ruminant,” said Mitloehner. “But everybody would have thought it was the waste (that was causing pollution).” For months Mitloehner has studied dairy cows in controlled environmental chambers, collecting data on the volatile organic gas emissions they produce. He attempted to mimic a 1938 study that measured methane emissions from cows – research that has been used, and in some cases misinterpreted, to establish dairy regulations. That old information was used to estimate that one dairy cow produces 12.8 pounds of volatile organic compounds each year. Mitloehner’s research shows that dairy cows produce only about half that much. With that, Mitloehner and other scientists working to quantify dairy emissions have the attention of the nation’s No. 1 dairy state and the regulators who are trying to curb the negative impacts of dairy air. “We’re absolutely looking at all the different types of research going on,” said Gennet Paauwe, a spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board, the state agency charged with controlling dairy emissions since California animal operations lost their air quality exemption in 2003. “This study and others which are in the works right now ... provide more information for our board to use to adopt regulations to control dairy emissions,” said Paauwe. “Some of the information we have is quite old.” Dairy leaders are thankful to see that new scientific information will likely be used to write future air quality regulations. “It’s promising,” said Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United Dairyman, a producer organization that recently filed suit against the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to keep that agency from using the 1938 study to regulate the dairy industry in the Central Valley. “We were pretty convinced that science would assist us in clarifying what (dairy) emissions really are,” said Marsh. In an effort to help clean up air in the Central Valley last year, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued rules that required dairies with more than 500 cows, and farmers with more than 100 contiguous acres of cropland, to implement conservation management practices to control dust. The state also began requiring air permits for agricultural operations whose emissions exceed a certain threshold. But the research being used to determine a dairy cow’s emissions was derived from the outdated study. While new information is welcomed by regulators and the dairy industry, Mitloehner and Marsh both stress the findings are still preliminary. Dairy emissions research (collected from several scientists) was presented, upon request, to air quality specialists last week in Fresno. “The problem is all our findings are preliminary,” said Mitloehner. “They’re all from ongoing studies.” Although Mitloehner’s research is 80 percent completed and hasn’t been peer-reviewed, the scientist said he’s “confident” of the accuracy of his findings, especially because they have been echoed in the results of other studies being conducted on the same issue. “It is good that at least some of this information is now starting to filter out,” said Marsh. “This should have significant ramifications for our producers and also for dairies in areas outside of California.” Ali Bay is based in Davis, Calif. Her e-mail address is abay@capitalpress.com. capitalpress.info

To: coug who wrote (95774)	2/8/2005 10:53:19 PM
From: coug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I am going to continue my comment on outsourcing, It seems like nobody on SI gave a damn when OUR textile industry was outsourced, when our footwear industry was outsourced, when our agriculture industry was outsourced all blue collar and/or shitty boots type jobs.. Jobs that mattered so much more to those above that lost them, because those were living so much closer to the edge and had so much less. What can I say more? But God forbid, when "high paying tech", liberal jobs (relative to the above) were outsourced, Jeesus Keerist, what a shame.. So I am only pointing this out, since I am a POPULIST which I learned and embraced, thankfully, from my dear departed Dad.. He was the only one around our area, a giving iconoclast that he was, that loved women like Eva Peron and I do too for what she done. He loved beautiful giving women like I do, women that gave hope to all, like my dear departed mother, named Eva, no matter what others thought. SO HERES to CARL AND EVA...