Food group Danone announced on Tuesday 17 January that it aims to reduce methane emissions related to raising the cows that supply its factories with fresh milk by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. “We will see how we can improve practices on farms in general,” said Jeanette Coombs-Lanot, spokeswoman for the group. Among the solutions mentioned: use of less emitting breeds, optimization of nutrition, maintenance of cow production for a longer period of time, collection of manure emissions in order to exploit them as biogas, etc.
The environmental footprint of cattle farming is impacted by the cows’ digestive process, which emits methane, primarily through belching: the same as town gas, which has a heating power 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. Methane also escapes from manure.
“Danone is the first food company to set a specific target to reduce methane emissions,” he said in a press release. This goal is in line with the Global Methane Pledge: at COP26 in 2021, one hundred countries committed to reducing methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels.
Danone’s target includes fresh milk, purchased directly from 58,000 dairy farms in 20 countries, accounting for 70% of its methane emissions. It does not extend to powdered milk in baby food. Danone says it reduced its methane emissions by “about 14%” between 2018 and 2020.
Change the power supply, filter the methane…
In Morocco, where the group sources milk from very small producers, “a lot of progress can be made by optimizing production,” explained Ms. Coombs-Lanot.
Improving the milk yield of each cow makes it possible to reduce the number of animals on a farm and thus emissions with the same production. Danone is also interested in innovations that promise to filter the methane emitted by cows — through a device installed on a halter (a harness attached to the head) — or reduce its production at source thanks to algae-based feed additives for example.
A 2021 United Nations Environment Program report indicated that technological solutions had “limited potential” to significantly reduce emissions from the agricultural sector.
He initially advocated behavioral changes, such as improved husbandry of farm animals and the introduction of diets in which meat and dairy products are more discreet or even disappear.
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