Grasping at seaweed
Announcement posted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia 29 Jan 2021
Dear Editor,
The dairy industry, drowning under public scrutiny of its woeful animal welfare record and environmental destructiveness, is no longer clutching at straws, but instead is grasping seaweed. Dairy Australia, the industry’s propaganda arm, is paying for advertorials about the wonders of feeding cows red algae, or Asparagopsis, in order to reduce the obscene amount of the very potent greenhouse gas methane, which is released in their belches and farts. Their no doubt conservative estimate is that this makes up 57% of farm emissions.
MLA and others are saying that “If 10% of the livestock producers added 1.0% of Asparagopsis Seaweed Meal to the daily feed intake of ruminant livestock, it is like removing 100 million cars off the road.” What that figure shows is the extent of the problem caused by this industry, which survives by tearing babies from their mothers and selling the milk excreted for them to make products that we know are terrible for the health of the human consumer.
If ten percent of “livestock” producers could easily remove greenhouse gases equivalent to 100 million cars, imagine what closing down this cruel and toxic industry could achieve!
Desmond Bellamy
Special Projects Coordinator
PETA Australia
PO Box 2352
Byron Bay NSW 2481
0411 577 416
DesmondB@PETA.org.au
The dairy industry, drowning under public scrutiny of its woeful animal welfare record and environmental destructiveness, is no longer clutching at straws, but instead is grasping seaweed. Dairy Australia, the industry’s propaganda arm, is paying for advertorials about the wonders of feeding cows red algae, or Asparagopsis, in order to reduce the obscene amount of the very potent greenhouse gas methane, which is released in their belches and farts. Their no doubt conservative estimate is that this makes up 57% of farm emissions.
MLA and others are saying that “If 10% of the livestock producers added 1.0% of Asparagopsis Seaweed Meal to the daily feed intake of ruminant livestock, it is like removing 100 million cars off the road.” What that figure shows is the extent of the problem caused by this industry, which survives by tearing babies from their mothers and selling the milk excreted for them to make products that we know are terrible for the health of the human consumer.
If ten percent of “livestock” producers could easily remove greenhouse gases equivalent to 100 million cars, imagine what closing down this cruel and toxic industry could achieve!
Desmond Bellamy
Special Projects Coordinator
PETA Australia
PO Box 2352
Byron Bay NSW 2481
0411 577 416
DesmondB@PETA.org.au