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Countries agreed to reduce methane, not abolish farming | Fact check

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rangerrebew:
Countries agreed to reduce methane, not abolish farming | Fact check
Story by Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY •
13h
 

The claim: 13 countries agreed to abolish farming
 
AJune 4 article published by The European Union Times features a headline about a supposed international effort to "save the planet" and includes a photo of a large group of people.

"13 Nations Agree to Abolish Farming in order to 'Save the Planet,'" reads the article's headline.
 
The article was shared more than 1,000 times on Facebook in about two months, according to CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool. Similar claims were made in posts shared on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.
 
Our rating: False
Thirteen countries agreed to reduce methane emissions in agriculture, but they didn't agree to abolish farming. The leader of the organization that announced the agreement said the claim is false.

Agriculture officials didn't agree to abolish farming

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/countries-agreed-to-reduce-methane-not-abolish-farming-fact-check/ar-AA1eYzlf?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=4888178016d5458eb448ed6dc2360681&ei=42

rangerrebew:
That's a little like claiming the atomic bomb was designed to destroy infrastructure, not kill people.  A war on methane could result in the demise of farming. :nono:

Smokin Joe:

--- Quote from: rangerrebew on August 09, 2023, 11:19:16 am ---That's a little like claiming the atomic bomb was designed to destroy infrastructure, not kill people.  A war on methane could result in the demise of farming. :nono:

--- End quote ---
But everything from swamps to ordinary people to vegans on legumes emits methane.

A quick Google search of "Do insects fart?" produces:


--- Quote ---“The most common gases in insect farts are hydrogen and methane, which are odorless,”
--- End quote ---
While the individual volumes are tiny, there are (also from a google search) over 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects in the world at any given time.


More searching reveals this about termites (just one genera of all those insects):
https://news.ncsu.edu/2018/11/do-insects-fart/


--- Quote ---We know so much about termite toots because they produce a lot of methane – an estimated 12,130,000 U.S. tons of methane each year. That’s enough to make them a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (though they still lag behind flatulent cows).
--- End quote ---

That's just one type of bug, and obviously there are a lot of others who also contribute.
--- Quote ---Cockroaches, which are closely related to termites and have similar gut microbes, also fart a lot – though they fart more on high fiber diets.
--- End quote ---

The lack of quantifiable totals for other insect species calls into question:

If we just eliminated termites and cockroaches, could we please keep the beef?
 
Maybe we'd have to fill in a couple of swampy places to make up the difference, but I find beef a preferable menu option.

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