<story><title>Scientist discovers particular seaweed nearly eliminates cow methane emissions</title><url>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-cow-farting-1.3856202</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chillydawg</author><text>The biggest producers are and will always be the mass market stuff, though. Who cares if 1% of beef is produced carbon neutral? It&amp;#x27;s nice, but it makes no tangible difference. Sadly this method of encouraging better behaviour won&amp;#x27;t work unless a costco or a mcdonalds, for some insane reason, wants to cut their profit margin and buy more expensive beef.</text></item><item><author>jdavis703</author><text>No, and that&amp;#x27;s not going to happen soon. But companies can start marketing their products as carbon neutral and selling them at a premium at retailers like Whole Foods.</text></item><item><author>TulliusCicero</author><text>There probably isn&amp;#x27;t an incentive to reduce methane emissions for farmers right now though, right? We&amp;#x27;d have to pass regulations mandating a reduction, or an emissions tax or something.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kristopolous</author><text>The worst move the environmental movement did is let the environmentally sensitive product be associated with consumption by a rich liberal urban elite.&lt;p&gt;Until someone can fix this and disassociate ecological efficiency from the limousine liberal, these programs are unfortunately going to only be marginal. Minimizing environmental externalities can&amp;#x27;t be seen as optional.&lt;p&gt;Lots of reasonable things increase cost - such as refrigerated storage and inspection. We don&amp;#x27;t tier the product market like this though, &amp;quot;oh you want your meat to be free of disease? Well then mr fancy pants... Here&amp;#x27;s the luxury product.&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>Scientist discovers particular seaweed nearly eliminates cow methane emissions</title><url>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-cow-farting-1.3856202</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chillydawg</author><text>The biggest producers are and will always be the mass market stuff, though. Who cares if 1% of beef is produced carbon neutral? It&amp;#x27;s nice, but it makes no tangible difference. Sadly this method of encouraging better behaviour won&amp;#x27;t work unless a costco or a mcdonalds, for some insane reason, wants to cut their profit margin and buy more expensive beef.</text></item><item><author>jdavis703</author><text>No, and that&amp;#x27;s not going to happen soon. But companies can start marketing their products as carbon neutral and selling them at a premium at retailers like Whole Foods.</text></item><item><author>TulliusCicero</author><text>There probably isn&amp;#x27;t an incentive to reduce methane emissions for farmers right now though, right? We&amp;#x27;d have to pass regulations mandating a reduction, or an emissions tax or something.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jdavis703</author><text>I agree with you. I&amp;#x27;d rather see faster, broader action. But it&amp;#x27;s not happening soon. But instead of waiting around ask your butcher if they can purchase a &amp;quot;zero carbon&amp;quot; cow (or better yet go vegan&amp;#x2F;vegetarian :)), don&amp;#x27;t buy mass market stuff with huge carbon footprints (this Christmas I&amp;#x27;m mostly giving food or other things). I used to think the &amp;quot;your wallet can change corporate behavior&amp;quot; line of reasoning at the end of Big Corp exposé-style documentaries (e.g. Fast Food Nation) was a little naïve. But look at how many smaller ethical businesses are out there. Yeah people might make fun of the &amp;quot;small batch artisanal&amp;quot; shops out there, but we&amp;#x27;re making progress because it is popular enough to be a common punch line.</text></comment>