First of four parts
Public-owned BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) offered an interesting article by Emily Kasriel. Amid polarized debate, Emily Kasriel asked how dairy farmers see the role of their industry in climate change, and finds a mixture of doubt, denial, and commitment to change:
“Nothing beats the feeling when you see a cow take its first breath, after battling to get it to breathe. I milk each cow twice a day every single day of the year, so they know I want the best for them,” said Hannah Edwards, standing proudly in the midst of the herd of Holstein cows she’s tended for the last 11 years. They are grazing on her favourite hillside, high up on the farm with a commanding view of peaks and valleys. “I love coming up here. On a clear day, you can see for miles. That’s Wales, Lake Bala is over there, and there you can see Snowdonia.”
“With a growing public awareness of the importance of consuming less dairy to meet tough climate change targets, I’ve come to meet Hannah to try and understand how family dairy farmers see climate change. After climbing into her tall green wellies, I drive with her and her Labrador, Marley, to the farm where she works, spread across the border between Wales and Shropshire in the west of England. I want to test whether a communication approach called deep listening could help understand better the attitudes of dairy farmers to the environment and climate change.
“Media representations of the climate change narrative have become increasingly polarized, with each side of the discussion represented by partisan outlets as a caricature. But behind these stereotypes are the nuanced stories of how people’s life experiences contribute to their world view. By having these conversations, perhaps there is common ground that will get us closer to sustainable change.
“Where better to start than dairy: in 2015, the industry’s emissions equivalent to more than 1,700 Million tons of CO2 made up 3.4% of the world’s total of almost 50,000 Million tons that year. That makes dairy’s contribution close to that from aviation and shipping combined (which are 1.9% and 1.7% respectively).
“Dairy farming is Hannah Edwards’ profession and vocation – and the welfare of the herd is always her primary concern.
“Not long after I arrive at the farm, Hannah, armed with a thick super-sized blue apron and a razor-sharp focus, announces it is time to enter the parlour, where she milks the 140 cows, in a true state of flow. Wrapped in blue gloves, her hands dance in swift parallel moves as they reach diagonally up and then across as she wipes each teat with a disinfecting cloth before attaching it on to the milk sucking equipment. Amid the flurry of muscle action I can feel Hannah’s calm aura of awareness, watching the milliliters on the glass vials track the bubbly white liquid while she reads each cows’ emotional state to pick up on any illness or mood requiring more close attention. ‘They can’t talk to you, just have to look out for different emotions,’ she said. ‘Their eyes become bulgy when they are scared. It’s really teamwork, cows and farmers working together to produce milk.’
“Between 2005 and 2015, the dairy cattle industry’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 18% as demand for milk grows
“The following morning, Hannah and I sit in blistering sunshine on a picnic bench in her family garden alongside her mother, Ruth, and brother, David. ‘The cows don’t like the heat,’ Hannah said. ‘They won’t sit down because the ground is too hot. Their feet get tender; they get abscesses that cause them to go lame.’
“Together, the family reflects on the changing weather and climate patterns they have witnessed. ‘I remember we used to get frost when we were kids, but we don’t get it anymore,’ said David. ‘We don’t get those nice crisp mornings.’ Ruth recalls that when she first came to the farm, the cherry blossom tree would bloom in May. ‘Now it’s April,’ she said. “The climate does seem to be different over the years. We don’t seem to get proper seasons anymore.’
“Hannah’s opinions about climate change prove complex over the course of our conversations. ‘Obviously climate change is happening,’ she said. ‘Greenhouse gases are helped by humans, isn’t it. Part of it is a natural process, like when the Ice Age ended. But it is speeded up, there’s no doubt about that.’ And what about the role of farmers? ‘Farmers have an extra responsibility to take care both of the environment and of emissions,’ she said.
“But at other moments, Hannah quickly moves the subject away from dairy farming’s contribution. ‘There are more people, so you need more animals to feed everyone. The bottom line is that we are overpopulated,’ she said. ‘It’s not just this country, there are more people all over the world.’
“Overall, a quarter of global emissions come from food. The United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) calculated that between 2005 and 2015, the dairy cattle industry’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 18% as demand for milk grows.
“These gases – mainly methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, are produced at different stages of dairy farming. Methane, the most potent of these greenhouse gases, is first produced as the cow digests its food. Then, as the manure is managed on the farm, methane as well as nitrous oxides are emitted.
“These gases all contribute to global warming. ‘Carbon dioxide has relatively weak warming effects, but its effects are permanent, lasting hundreds of thousands of years,’ said Tara Garnett, who researches greenhouse gas emissions from food at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. ‘A ton of methane has a far stronger warming effect, but its effect disperses rapidly, in about a decade.’
“I sense a conflict between the family’s shared world view, a deep love and connection with the environment, and to the possibility that dairy farming could be harming the planet.
“But for Hannah, there is a level of distrust in such facts. ‘With regard to scientific information, you hope that it’s true,’ she said. ‘But there’s a little bit of me that is quite sceptical. Are they just scaremongering, and forcing us to do things that they want to do?’”
Continued at thevoice.us/confronting-possibilities-that-farming-affects-climate-change