
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 14, 1993                   TAG: 9311140110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAYBE THREAT FROM CATTLE HAS PASSED

Pass up that hamburger at lunch? Opt for filet of fish instead of filet mignon for last night's dinner? Sure, you've cut your intake of fat and cholesterol.

But also think what you've done for cleaner air.

Americans are eating less red meat - 13.5 percent less than a decade ago.

With consumer demand down, beef-herd sizes have decreased.

The result has been a corresponding drop in - how to be discreet - the level of "methane emissions" from the bovines.

Laugh if you will, but this development warrants an entire section in the federal Energy Information Administration's recent report titled "Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States, 1985-1990."

Methane, like carbon dioxide and ozone, is a greenhouse gas, suspected of contributing to global warming because the gases trap heat near the Earth's surface.

Cattle are the worst air-quality offenders, accounting for about 7 percent of methane produced globally. Sheep, goats, buffalo, deer, bison, elk, goats and camels contribute an additional 3.7 percent.

by CNB