Scientists Have Created the UK's First Herd of 'Eco-Cows'

No one wants to play the evangelical vegan cousin at a family barbecue, but there's no getting around the fact that the average burger isn't that great for the environment. Beef requires 28 times more land to produce than pork or chicken, with ever-increasing swathes of the planet, including the Amazon rainforest, being given over to cattle farming.

Land aside, cows' funny little way of digesting food in their stomach—and the flatulence this entails—means that beef production is also responsible for whole lot of planet-warming methane gas being released into the atmosphere.

While switching to a plant-based diet is the only real solution to the problem, not everyone wants to follow Beyonce's pseudo-vegan lead. Luckily, a group of British scientists is working on a solution that may benefit both the environment and anyone who really can't imagine a future without beef enchiladas.

In an experiment that attempts to reduce the greenhouse gases associated with cattle farming, British agricultural research organisation Rothamsted Research may have created the country's first "eco-cows."

Based on a farm in Devon, the project monitors three herds of cows to see how their feed and environmental conditions affect gas emission. Speaking to The Sunday Times, professor of sustainable livestock systems at Rothamsted Michael Lee explained, "Cattle and other ruminants are an important source of nutritious food, but they generate a lot of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. Our aim is to cut them by 30 to 50 percent."

Each of the herds will be fitted with gas analysts to track levels of methane and nitrous oxide. Scientists will also track levels of rainfall and fertiliser used on the fields to decipher whether this too impacts gas levels.

One of the 30-strong herds will graze on grass packed with easily digestible sugar, which researchers hope will mean less methane emissions. Another herd will be fed with plants that produce high levels of protein.

By exploring alternative feeding methods, researchers hope to develop new environmentally and financially beneficial options for cattle farmers. Professor John Crawford, a Scientific Director at Rothamsted, explained that it is "inefficient to grow cows using grains that humans could eat, but keeping them on grassland where crops cannot grow creates a valuable source of food."

Rothamsted will give more detail on the project, including a "cow's eye view" of the world, at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition in London later this month.

So, perhaps next summer we'll be grilling our way through stacks of eco-beef burgers. Just make sure they're not on the vegan side of the barbecue, OK?