Arabic version: حذف درس عن الميثان ممول من قطاع اللحوم البقرية بعد اعتراضات مربي الماشية

According to The Guardian, a beef industry-funded science lesson for teenagers on cattle methane emissions was removed after criticism from ranchers who disputed that cows contribute to global heating.

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture and its Food and Agriculture Center for Science Education provide a free curriculum used by about 1.2 million students in more than 100 US school districts. The lesson, titled “Methane & Cattle: A Climate Connection”, examined cattle digestion, methane emissions and atmospheric dynamics.

Rick Henningfeld, the foundation’s education director, told an audience at CattleCon in February that the lesson had been taken down following feedback from farm bureau members and producers. He said it was being edited and could return. It had not returned when a new cattle-digestion lesson was published in July without references to methane or climate.

The foundation said the July material was not a replacement and that it was developing a longer lesson with research on the biogenic cycle. It said the subject could not be covered in a 45-minute lesson. The curriculum is funded through the mandatory “beef checkoff” levy on cattle sales.

Climate scientist Carl-Friedrich Schleussner said ongoing biogenic methane emissions maintain about 0.3C, or roughly 20%, of global warming to date. Drew Shindell of Duke University said the removed lesson understated livestock’s share of human-caused methane emissions, putting it at about 2% rather than a little over 30%.