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Dairy’s role in climate change

The director of Minnesota Milk isn’t that concerned climate change policy will negatively impact dairy farmers.

Lucas Sjostrum says research continues to show that methane dissipates about 10 years after its created.

“We are not the problem. We’ve got to keep working like every other industry on transportation, electricity, and all the other things that go with running a business. But when it comes to animals themselves, I am pretty optimistic about where dairy and where animal agriculture is going to land.”

Speaking to Brownfield at the recent Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo, he says dairies can be part of the solution in addressing environmental concerns.

“We have this great thing called alfalfa, and pasture, that we’re already using that can capture carbon. And unfortunately the rhetoric from some of the so-called environmental groups, I don’t believe they’ve read the latest science. I believe they’ve taken the theories of the past 30 years and kind of made up their own theories that animal agriculture is bad for the environment.”

Sjostrum says in the coming months the National Academy of Sciences will be releasing a report that screams the need for livestock to help solve the climate crisis.