"If cows were a country, they would be third in the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases"
It takes about four pounds of greenhouse gas emissions to produce a quarter pound of beef. Why is the carbon footprint of beef so much higher compared to plants? Meat products (in general) tend to have a higher carbon footprint than grains or vegetables because of the energy it takes to transform plant energy to animal energy, along with the methane released from manuring and enteric fermentation in ruminants. Enteric fermentation is a natural part of the digestive process in ruminant animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, and buffalo. Microbes in the digestive tract, or rumen, decompose and ferment food, producing methane as a by product. Methane is very powerful greenhouse gas. One pound of methane is equivalent to 25 pounds of Carbon Dioxide.