120

Major Dairy Supplier to Trial Potentially Toxic “Low Emission” Cow Feed

Kit Knightly

Major dairy suppliers and supermarkets are partnering with chemical company DSM-Firmenich to trial new “low-emission” dairy products nationwide.

Arla, a cooperative of over 2500 British dairy farms, is working with supermarkets Tesco, Aldi and Morrisons to market new “low emission” milk, butter and cheese.

A joint statement from supermarkets published on Arla’s website says:

Through collaboration as part of Arla’s FarmAhead™ Customer Partnership, we have the ability to address some of the climate challenges facing our food system. It is this collective approach that is really going to make a difference. Being involved in using a feed additive is a great way of testing out where we can drive change at scale to bring down emissions.”

The plan is to add a new drug called “bovaer” to the cow’s food to change the chemistry of their digestive process, lower the methane content of their burps, and thus save the planet.

But if that sounds like a dystopian and potentially dangerous idea to you, don’t worry it’s all been tested and found to be safe.

Sure, the chemicals in bovaer shouldn’t be breathed in, or rubbed on your skin and dear god don’t get them near your eyes  (in fact government regulations say you should wear personal protective equipment when working with it), but so what?

You don’t rub milk into your eyes or breathe cheddar cheese do you?

And yes, the carcinogenetic studies did find it may have caused tumors in 8% of female rats, but that means you’ve got a 92% chance of being fine. Besides, a team of experts “re-analysed” those results and found they “weren’t statistically significant”.

Anyway, all the tumors were benign, so what is the fuss about?

And who even cares if it can make men infertile? Hello! We have a population crisis, if anything more infertility is a good thing.

Let’s just go and look at the pictures of happy animals on DSM Firmenich’s website. They even have a (totally real) counter for all the emissions they’ve lowered.

Isn’t that nice?

It doesn’t even really matter at this point if climate change is real (it’s not) or the drug works (who cares?) or if bovaer is even safe for human consumption (I guess we’ll find out) – just think about it for a moment:

They are adding potentially harmful chemicals to cows’ food to stop their burps from affecting the weather.

…it’s just mad.

But madness is very much the new normal.

Who’d have thought Prince Charles’ methane-catching cow gas mask would ever be topped in the “weirdest cow-related idea” stakes?

Oh, there is some good news. According to the Soil Association, Bovaer is not approved organic and therefore cannot be legally added to “organic” dairy products:

Another reason, supposing you needed one, to shop local and/or organic if you can.

SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN

If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.

For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.

Categories: FP Top 3, latest