By Angela Brown

Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan conference aims to educate, promote awareness

Oct 21, 2020 | 4:45 PM

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – One of the keynote speakers at the Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan conference coming up next month will provide some insight into methane and the livestock industry.

The Cultivating Trust conference takes place online on Nov. 25. The event is being held virtually this year due to COVID-19 precautions.

Frank Mitloehner, a professor and air quality specialist in cooperative extension in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis, will give a presentation called Rethinking Methane: The Path to Climate Neutrality for Animal Agriculture.

Mitloehner hopes to help clear up any misconceptions about methane production on farms.

“We have really changed the way we talk about methane, that we understand methane, because it is very different compared to other greenhouse gases such as CO2 [carbon dioxide],” he said. “And, that has profound implications to livestock.”

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Mitloehner said while methane produced by livestock is a potent greenhouse gas, it has a shorter lifespan of only about 10 years, compared to carbon dioxide which remains in the atmosphere for one thousand years.

He said as long as the livestock numbers at an operation remain constant they do not add additional carbon to the atmosphere. Therefore, they do not increase warming to the atmosphere either.

“The amount of methane produced by your cow and the amount of methane destroyed by a process in the air called oxidation would have balanced each other out,” Mitloehner said.

He said only when a livestock herd size is increased does methane production go up, and as a result increased warming to the atmosphere.

Mitloehner said he is looking forward to discussing the issue at the conference.

Another keynote speaker is Timothy Caulfield, a Canada Research Chair in health law and policy, a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, and a research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, who will give a talk called: Infodemic: Is Misinformation Killing Us?

Also at the event, Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan Executive Director Clinton Monchuk will present a 2020 year-in-review related to agriculture.

Monchuk said the event promises to be informative.

“It’s going to be a great conference, talking about trust and different [issues] that farmers, ranchers and people who work in the agriculture field can get a little bit more information about,” he said.

While the conference is free, people will need to register first to access the online link.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW