For over forty years, Burger King used a catchphrase: Do it your way. Who knew one day that the company would join the climate change discussion with the ingredient to combat methane emissions from lemongrass? The corporation believes that lemon grass fed to cows will decrease cow farts and belches. However, the science is doubtful.
During a limited-time launch in the cities of Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Portland, Burger King will offer “beef with fewer methane emissions.” Channeling his inner green guilt, a new slogan appears during an educational video that addresses how cows and methane emissions affect the earth, also known as global climate change. “Since we are part of the problem, we are working to be part of the solution.” Burger King is based on a UN report that says: “Livestock are responsible for 14.5% of all human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.” The corporation wants to do its part to achieve the goal of the 2016 Paris Agreement on global warming.
Cows have a complex digestive system consisting of four stomachs, allowing them to eat and digest foods that we cannot, such as grass, through a process called enteric fermentation. As cows digest their food, they produce a lot of methane. This greenhouse gas is released every time cows burp and throw out methane gas. Methane is considered a major contributor to global warming, making it a key area that we must address to achieve the 2016 Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to well below 2 ° C and making efforts to limit it to 1.5 ° C.
So Burger King is changing the diet of his cattle. It should help them digest food better, therefore, less gas emissions. They are adding 100 grams of dried lemongrass leaves to the cows’ daily diet. BK claims an average reduction of up to 33% in methane emissions during the diet feeding period.
Working as a team with the best researchers from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico and UC Davis, we have carried out several rounds of research to develop and refine a new livestock menu. The results? Based on this initial research, we have found that feeding cows relatively small amounts of lemongrass, during the fattening production stages of three to four months, reduces their methane emissions by up to 33% on average. Adding 100 grams of dried lemongrass leaves to the cow’s daily diet makes a significant difference.
Burger King hopes that some young children will be the sugar to make the lemongrass meat message more easily conveyed. The protagonist is a boy who made a Walmart ad a couple of years ago. The Burger King announcement came several months ago before the coronavirus pandemic closed studio productions, so this decision has been in process for a while.
As you can imagine, ranchers are not having fun. In Colorado, for example, they talk about the recent record heat and drought that have made life difficult. They say this is just a publicity stunt.
“This is the worst drought I have ever seen. We never had to remove cattle from the pasture in July before, ”Sonnenberg said. “You can look around and the grass is brown. This is typically what it looks like in September, not July. “
The land around Sterling is so dry, in fact, that the family has earned a bit of livestock from other ranchers who ran out of grass for their livestock.
“We are trying to find out exactly how much longer it can stay there before the grass dies,” said Josh Sonnenberg. “I don’t know if I can afford to buy hay because we don’t know what livestock prices are going to do with the pandemic and everything else.”
“Burger King has put together what I call a publicity stunt in which they expect more people to drive their lot than any other fast food chain down the street, citing a study that cows are thrown away too much,” said Jerry Sonnenberg. .
Sonnenberg says the ad uses a study that has not been peer-reviewed. He claims that only around 5% to 10% of the gases emitted by livestock are due to flatulence. He says switching to lemongrass (if it can be grown on his land) or seaweed would raise the price of beef. It could even push some financially struggling ranchers out of business. Josh Sonnenberg recognizes that ranchers and farmers must do a better job of educating the public about what feeding programs do and how they work so that misinformation is not taken for granted.
Real scientific evidence or just some sign of virtue from a large corporation that wants to be one of the ones that woke up? Who knows? Maybe your next Whopper has a Thai flavor.
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