Terry D. Etherton
For those who thought the public discussion about recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) might have faded…guess what? It has not!
A superb paper (“The Environmental Impact of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST) use in Dairy Production”) published by Capper et al. on June 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that use of rbST reduces the carbon footprint of milk production. This is an important contribution to the scientific base documenting the benefits of rbST use in the dairy industry.
The study’s authors include Cornell University professor Dale Bauman, post-doctoral research associates Jude Capper and Euridice Castandena-Gutierrez, and Monsanto scientist Roger Cady.
Producing milk uses large quantities of land, energy and feed. The paper published by Bauman et al. reported that rbST use reduces the carbon hoofprint by easing energy, land and nutritional inputs necessary to sustain milk production at levels sufficient to meet demand.
This research found that, compared to a non-supplemented population, supplementing one million cows would rbST would result in the same amount of milk produced using 157,000 fewer cows. This has an obvious huge benefit on the environment!
Nutrient savings would be 491,000 metric tons of corn, 158,000 metric tons of soybeans, and total feedstuffs would be reduced by 2,300,000 metric tons … importantly, producers could reduce cropland use by 219,000 hectares and reduce 2.3 million tons of soil erosion annually.
Other Important Facts about rbST Use
In 2007, there were 9.2 million cows in the United States. For every one million cows supplemented with rbST, the global village would see an environmental saving of 824 million kilograms of carbon dioxide, 41 million kilograms of methane and 96,000 kilograms of nitrous oxide … amazing!
For every one million cows supplemented with rbST, the reduction in the carbon footprint is equivalent to removing approximately 400,000 family cars from the road or planting 300 million trees.
“Supplementing cows with rbST on an industry-wide scale would improve sustainability and reduce the dairy industry’s contribution to water acidification, algal growth, and global warming,” says Judith L. Capper, the lead author on the paper.
“Sustainability is important in agricultural production, with an emphasis placed upon meeting human food requirements while mitigating environmental impact,” said Bauman. “This study demonstrates that use of rbST markedly improves the efficiency of milk production, mitigates environmental impact including greenhouse gas emissions and reduces natural resource requirements such as fossil fuel, water and land use.”
Other Perspectives
I have written extensively about the benefits of biotechnology, and the importance of adopting products of biotechnology that enhance productive efficiency of animal agriculture, and that have positive environmental benefits. The paper by Capper et al. adds an important new element to the impressive database that demonstrates the many benefits of rbST for consumers, dairy farmers and the environment!
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